Selective recovery of Cu(II) from strongly acidic wastewater by zinc dimethyldithiocarbamate: Affecting factors, efficiency and mechanism

The selective recovery of copper from strongly acidic wastewater containing mixed metal ions remains a significant challenge.In this study,a novel reagent zinc dimethyldithiocarbamate(Zn(DMDC)_(2))was developed for the selective removal of Cu(II).The removal efficiency of Cu(II)reached 99.6%after 120 min reaction at 30°C when the mole ratio Zn(DMDC)_(2)/Cu(II)was 1:1.The mechanism investigation indicates that the Cu(DMDC)_(2) products formed as a result of the displacement of Zn(II)from the added Zn(DMDC)_(2) by Cu(II)in wastewater,due to the formation of stronger coordination bonds between Cu(II)and the dithiocarbamate groups of Zn(DMDC)_(2).Subsequently,we put forward an innovative process of resource recovery for strongly acidicwastewater.Firstly,the selective removal of Cu(II)fromactualwastewater using Zn(DMDC)_(2),with a removal efficiency of 99.7%.Secondly,high-value CuO was recovered by calcining the Cu(DMDC)_(2) at 800°C,with a copper recovery efficiency of 98.3%.Moreover,the residual As(III)and Cd(II)were removed by introducing H_(2)S gas,and the purified acidic wastewater was used to dissolve ZnO for preparation of valuable ZnSO_(4)·H_(2)O.The total economic benefit of resource recovery is estimated to be 11.54$/m^(3).Accordingly,this study provides a new route for the resource recovery of the treatment of copper-containing acidic wastewater.

Removal of Ni(Ⅱ) from strongly acidic wastewater by chelating precipitation and recovery of NiO from the precipitates

Strongly acidic wastewater produced in nonferrous metal smelting industries often contains high concentrations of Ni(Ⅱ), which is a valuable metal. In this study, the precipitation of Ni(Ⅱ) from strongly acidic wastewater using sodium dimethyldithiocarbamate(DDTC) as the precipitant was evaluated. The effects of various factors on precipitation were investigated, and the precipitation mechanism was also identified. Finally, the nickel in the precipitates was recovered following a pyrometallurgical method. The results show that, under optimised conditions(DDTC:Ni(Ⅱ) molar ratio = 4:1;temperature = 25 ℃), the Ni(Ⅱ) removal efficiency reached 99.3% after 10 min. In strongly acidic wastewater, the dithiocarbamate group of DDTC can react with Ni(Ⅱ) to form DDTC –Ni precipitates. Further recovery experiments revealed that high-purity Ni O can be obtained by the calcination of DDTC –Ni precipitates, with the nickel recovery efficiency reaching 98.2%. The gas released during the calcination process was composed of NO_(2), CS_(2), H_(2)O, CO_(2), and SO_(2). These results provide a basis for an effective Ni(Ⅱ) recovery method from strongly acidic wastewater.

Clean and effective removal of Cl(-I)from strongly acidic wastewater by PbO_(2)

Recycling strongly acidic wastewater as diluted H_(2)SO_(4) after contaminants contained being removed was previously proposed,however,Cl(-I),a kind of contaminant contained in strongly acidic wastewater,is difficult to remove,which severely degrades the quality of recycled H_(2)SO_(4).In this study,the removal of Cl(-I)using PbO_(2) was investigated and the involved mechanisms were explored.The removal efficiency of Cl(-I)reached 93.38%at 50℃ when PbO_(2)/Cl(-I)mole ratio reached 2:1.The identification of reaction products shows that Cl(-I)was oxidized to Cl_(2),and PbO_(2) was reduced to PbSO_(4).Cl_(2) was absorbed by NaOH to form NaClO,which was used for the regeneration of PbO_(2) from the generated PbSO_(4).Cl(-I)was removed through two pathways,i.e.,surface oxidation and•OH radical oxidation.•OH generated by the reaction of PbO_(2) and OH−plays an important role in Cl(-I)removal.The regenerated PbO_(2) had excellent performance to remove Cl(-I)after six-time regeneration.This study provided an in-depth understanding on the effective removal of Cl(-I)by the oxidation method.