Sulfide Precipitation of Heavy Metals: Effect of Complexing Agents

摘要

Process wastewaters containing heavy metals result from metal finishing and production operations and certain inorganic chemical manufacturing operations. Depending on their origin, these process wastewaters may also contain chelating agents such as EDTA, citrate, etc. The effective removal of heavy metals or their selective recovery, even at high pH, is often not feasible by conventional hydroxide precipitation. Sulfide precipitation is an alternate method for the effective treatment of industrial wastewaters containing highly toxic metals and this method is especially effective when completing or chelating agents are present in the wastewaters.