Estimation of the Efficiency of Methods for Electroplating Wastewater Purification from Ammonium-Tartrate Copper (II) Complexes

Abstract

Wastewater purification from heavy metal compounds is a complex and urgent task. One of the main sources of pollution of the environment with ions of heavy metals is the wastewater, i.e., washing, of the electro-plating processes. Complex electrolytes based on copper compounds are stable in a wide pH range and, when released into water, cannot be removed by the traditional methods, such as neutralization and precipitation. The study estimated the efficiency of various methods of physicochemical water purification for removing complex ammonia-tartrate copper (II) complexes from water. Findings of research show that titanyl sulfate is most effective in water purification using coagulants. The efficiency of purification with the use of titanium compounds reaches 85 %, which is on average 30--40 % higher than when using traditional coagulants based on aluminum or iron compounds. Electrocoagulation processes make it possible to effectively remove complex copper compounds from water due to a combination of the processes of organic component oxidation and coagulation with iron salts. It was found that advanced oxidation processes, which are based on the reaction with a hydroxyl radical, using hydrogen peroxide, i.e., Fenton processes, make it possible to purify wastewater from copper compounds by 99.9 %. Despite the high efficiency, it is advisable to use adsorption processes only at the stage of additional water purification from previously coagulated and oxidized pollutants