Recovery Of Zinc, Copper And Nickel From Industrial Effluents Generated By The Electroplating Units Using The "3PE" Technology

Recovery of zinc, copper and nickel from electroplating waste solutions was achieved 'by using a Pulsated Percolated Porous Electrode "3PE" reactor on a pilot plant scale. Intensity - potential curves were used to study the possibility of metal removal and to define the working potential range. The present study describes the use of the 3PE reactors in several electroplating industrial units for the decontamination of their effluents. These effluents were issued from different industrial solutions such as cyanide, sulfate, chloride and Watts baths. Using the stripping curves, deposition rates and electrical efficiencies were determined as function of the metal concentrations in these effluents. Their decontamination could be achieved to the level of few ppm of metals with reasonable current efficiencies. The recovery rates of zinc and copper were about 93 and 99 %, respectively. The. treated effluents contained less than 7 and 1 % of the initial contents of Zn and Cu, respec¬tively. This process allows the recycling of the recovered metals and leads to water saving.