Degradation of electroplating wastewater by dark fenton reaction

Abstract

Complexes are formed due to the utilization of complexing agents, also known as chelating agents, which are organic compounds that can form stable, water-soluble complexes with multivalent metal ions in the form of a heterocyclic ring. After the electroplating treatment, massive amount of wastewater containing all kinds of chemicals, predominantly heavy metals and their complexes, is produced. There are many exiting treatment methods to deal with the problems that brought by cyanides, chromium, metals. Yet, there still does not exist a readily treatment method to destroy these complexes, hence, metal ions could not be removed as they are still held by the complexes. In this research, dark Fenton(-like) reaction is applied in order to decompose the organic and inorganic pollutants within the real industrial electroplating wastewater. A tailor-made magnetic functionalized copper-iron bimetallic mesoporous catalyst is developed for this wastewater treatment. Experiments were done to figure out the effectiveness and optimal operation conditions of this treatment method. Results showed that about 65% and 96% total carbon and total inorganic carbon were removed using the aforementioned catalyst and treatment method. It is also proven that with is special developed catalyst, the treatment can be performed at a milder pH condition (instead of pH3 for Fenton reaction) which saves the cost for pH adjustment and is more environmentally friendly. It was also proven that metal ions were released from their complexes after the treatment. In the future, it is suggested to put efforts on removing the released metal ions after the treatment, reducing the catalyst synthesis procedures, and investigating in the continuous treatment system.

Date of Award	2019
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology