Process for the transformation of copper from wastewater containing copper in the spent copper chloride etching solution from printed circuit board fabrication

摘要

In a process for recovering copper from a copper salt-containing solution, in which a selectively working ion exchanger resin (2) is loaded with copper in an ion exchange vessel by feeding an aqueous, copper salt-containing feed solution and the copper, bound to the ion exchanger resin, is then eluted again with a strongly acid-containing solution and the ion exchanger resin is regenerated, the acid-containing solution displacing the waste water, originating from the feed solution and in most cases containing alkali metal salt, from the ion exchange vessel (2), the feed solution used is copper-containing waste water from copper-plating processes, for example initial rinsing water or spent active bath from printed circuit board fabrication, and the strongly acid-containing solution used for regenerating the ion exchanger resin is spent copper-containing copper chloride etching solution (CuCl2 + HCl) which preferably likewise originates from printed circuit board fabrication. In this way, the spent etching solution is enriched with the copper ions removed from the waste water and thus becomes more valuable, while copper is removed from the waste water which therefore no longer has to be processed to give copper-containing sludge which would have to be disposed of expensively as hazardous waste. IMAGE