Use of Citric Acid Industrial Wastewater to Enhance Electrochemical Remediation of Cadmium-Contaminated Natural Clay

Abstract

Citric acid industrial wastewater (CAIW) is a waste by-product generated by the manufacturing process of citric acid. Effective and economical treatment and disposal of the wastewater is an environmental challenge. A research program was launched to investigate the feasibility of using CAIW as an enhancement agent for electrochemical remediation of Cd-contaminated clay of high acid/base buffer capacity, so as to lower the cost of electrochemical remediation and to put a waste byproduct into productive use. The research program included batch experiments to quantify various soil-Cd-CAIW interactions and laboratory bench-scale electrochemical remediation experiments. The results indicate CAIW is a promising replacement for other more expensive synthetic chelating agents in the enhancement of electrochemical remediation. Details of the study are presented in the paper.

Application of electrokinetic in controlling heavy metals migration in sand: A feasibility study

“…Reduction occurs at cathode where hydrogen gas and hydroxide ion are released (2). In contrast, the cathode generates hydroxides ions, forming an alkaline medium [10,11,12]. The electrolysis of water is as shown in (1) and (2).…”