METAL RECOVERY WITH A NOVEL ELECTROCHANGE~TM PROCESS

摘要

Metals are used in a broad range of industrial processes and products. Due to the toxicity of heavy metals, metal containing wastewater must be adequately treated. The ElectroChange~TM process developed at Faraday Technology Inc. (Fara Tech) integrates electrowinning and ion-exchange into one unit ot economically treat large volumes of wastewater from high concentration to low concentration. Our process combines the advantages of electrowinning and ion-exchange and the total cost is lower than conventional electrowinning and ion-exchange. Pulse current is used to improve metal recovery efficiency by increasing the mass transfer rate. Economic models were developed for ElectroChange~TM process~1 and the results were compared to other commercial metal recovery technologies. Technoeconomic maps show how this technology is positioned relative to existing technologies over the treatment rates from 480 gpd to 50,000 gpd and initial metal concentrations from 100 ppm to 1000 ppm.