Recovery of Nickel from Diluted Solutions by the Combination of Ion Exchange and Successive Electrodeposition

"AbstractThe industry is confronted with stricter discharge levels and an increasing awareness to avoid toxic waste (such as heavy metal containing sludge obtained in physicochemical water treatment) and recover valuable metals. This can be realized by ion exchange or by electrodeposition. Both techniques however show an optimum concentration range to efficiently remove and/or recover metals: electrolysis can recover the metal in its metallic form but suffers from low efficiency when applied to diluted solutions, whereas ion exchange can only be applied economically in the low ppm range.A combination of ion exchange followed by electrodeposition was applied to an industrial wastewater. The strong acidic ion exchange resin was stripped with H2SO4 giving a solution of 9g/L nickel. From this solution, nickel was electrodeposited in an ammonia buffer on a Ti-mesh cathode with high current efficiency. It is shown that organic compounds (surfactants, brighteners, …) present in the industrial wastewater do not influence the recovery process.IntroductionAlmost all rinse waters emerging from metal plating plants are generated during the washing operation of plated materials. These solutions with low metal content must either be recycled within the process or be discarded to the surface water after decreasing their metal content to acceptable levels determined by the local environmental regulations, which become more and more stringent. Today, the most commonly used practice is a physico-chemical treatment (precipitation) and a resin post treatment to meet the standards. A more sustainable approach should use a technology to recover efficiently the metal or metal salt without the production of sludge and the effluent should be consistent with environmental regulations."