Nickel recovery from an electroplating rinsing effluent using RCE bench scale and RCE pilot plant reactors: The influence of pH control

Electro-oxidation of Ni (II)-citrate complexes at BDD electrode and simultaneous recovery of metallic nickel by electrodeposition

The simultaneous electro-oxidation of Ni (II)-citrate and electrodeposition recovery of nickel metal were attempted in a combined electro-oxidation-electrodeposition reactor with a boron-doped diamond (BDD) anode and a polished titanium cathode. Effects of initial nickel citrate concentration, current density, initial pH, electrode spacing, electrolyte type, and initial electrolyte dosage on electrochemical performance were examined. The efficiencies of Ni (II)-citrate removal and nickel metal recovery were determined to be 100% and over 72%, respectively, under the optimized conditions (10 mA/cm², pH 4.09, 80 mmol/L Na₂SO₄, initial Ni (II)-citrate concentration of 75 mg/L, electrode spacing of 1 cm, and 180 min of electrolysis). Energy consumption increased with increased current density, and the energy consumption was 0.032 kWh/L at a current density of 10 mA/cm² (pH 6.58). The deposits at the cathode were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive spectrometry (EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). These characterization results indicated that the purity of metallic nickel in cathodic deposition was over 95%. The electrochemical system exhibited a prospective approach to oxidize metal complexes and recover metallic nickel.

Removal of low concentrations of nickel ions in electroplating wastewater by combination of electrodialysis and electrodeposition

The low concentration of nickel in electroplating wastewater is difficult to treat to meet the discharge standard. In this study, a commercial cation exchange membrane was used to combine the electrodialysis on a titanium plate anode sintered ruthenium-iridium and the electrodeposition on a stainless steel cathode to reduce the nickel concentration to less 0.1 mg L^-1. The electrolytic properties of the electrodialysis combined with the electrodeposition were investigated at different cell voltages, electrolysis time, initial electrolyte pH, electrolyte flow rates and initial Ni²⁺ concentrations. The results indicated that the Ni²⁺ concentration in the anolyte and the catholyte could be reduced to 0.015 and 0.085 mg L^-1, respectively, with the initial Ni²⁺ concentration of 1.0 mg L^-1, which could meet the most strict Ni²⁺ discharge standard of 0.1 mg L^-1. The electrodeposition of Ni²⁺ on the cathode enhanced the migration of the Ni²⁺ in the electrolytes, which was beneficial to decrease the energy consumption. Therefore, the combination of electrodialysis and electrodeposition was promising to reduce the low concentration of Ni²⁺ in the electroplating wastewater.

Highly selective removal of Ni(II) from plating rinsing wastewaters containing [Ni-xNH3-yP2O7]n complexes using N-chelating resins

Inorganic complexants, such as ammonia (AA) and pyrophosphate (PP), are often present alongside heavy metal ions in alkaline plating rinsing wastewater. We investigated the removal capacity of Ni(II) from waters containing [Ni-xNH₃-yP₂O₇]ⁿ complexes by chelating and ion-exchange resins in sole and dual-ligand systems. D463 (containing iminodiacetic groups) and PAMD (possessing polyamine groups) exerted superior performance under all conditions. Ni(II) adsorption on D463 decreased with AA and PP by 10.3% and 64.4%, respectively. Conversely, the adsorption on PAMD increased by 57.3% and 75.8%, respectively. PAMD exhibited high selectivity toward anionic [Ni-PP] species over free PP. More Ni(II) was captured by PAMD in the dual-ligand systems than sole systems, while the case for D463 was opposite. As confirmed by species tracking and DFT/XPS analyses, complexes breaking-Ni²⁺ capture was the dominant mechanism for D463, while the dual-site (non-charged and protonated amines) interactions with NiP₂O₇^2- on PAMD promoted its adsorption. The tandem combination D463-PAMD was the optimal mode to remove the most Ni(II). The actual wastewater test demonstrated that >210 BV effluent met the limit of 0.1 mg Ni(II)/L and the eluent contained 15 g Ni(II)/L. This study guides the application of chelating adsorption processes in the advanced treatment of plating rinsing wastewaters.

Molecular identification guided process design for advanced treatment of electroless nickel plating effluent

It has been long desired but challenging to forward the advanced treatment of wastewater from empirical trials towards scientific design due to the lack of molecular insight into the pollutants of concern. Herein, we first established a systematic methodology to identify the ligands of Ni(II)-complexes in an electroless nickel (EN) plating effluent. The presence of N-containing groups in the ligands of most Ni(II)-complexes was verified by time-aligned ICP-MS and ESI-HRMS, implying the suitability of autocatalytic ozonation for efficient decomplexation. Thereby, a combined process was proposed on the basis of ozonation to achieve over 83% decomplexation of Ni(II) (initially at 0.36 mg/L), followed by selective Ni(II) sequestration for resource recovery. Combinational LC-MS systems revealed the ozonation-induced fragmentation or elimination of most Ni(II)-complexes as well as the structural change of the residual complexed molecules. The released free Ni(II) was further sequestrated by a nanocomposite of hydrated Zr(IV) oxide confined in a polymeric cation exchanger (nHZO@PCE). The fixed-bed working capacity of nHZO@PCE (∼550 BV) for the ozonated EN plating effluent was over 18 times that of the cation exchanger host (∼30 BV) at the breakthrough point of 0.10 mg Ni/L. More attractively, five adsorption-regeneration cycles demonstrated the great potential of the hybrid adsorbent for sustainable utilization. This study is believed to shed new light on how to design rational processes for advanced treatment of real wastewater based on molecular identification.

A novel application of membrane distillation to facilitate nickel recovery from electroplating wastewater

In many years, the nickel electroplating technique has been applied to coat nickel on other materials for their increased properties. Nickel electroplating has played a vital role in our modern society but also caused considerable environmental concerns due to the mass discharge of its wastewater (i.e. containing nickel and other heavy metals) to the environment. Thus, there is a growing need for treating nickel electroplating wastewater to protect the environment and, in tandem, recover nickel for beneficial use. This study explores a novel application of membrane distillation (MD) for the treatment of nickel electroplating wastewater for a dual purpose: facilitating the nickel recovery and obtaining fresh water. The experimental results demonstrate the technical capability of MD to pre-concentrate nickel in the wastewater (i.e. hence pave the way for subsequent nickel recovery via chemical precipitation or electrodeposition) and extract fresh water. At a low operating feed temperature of 60 °C, the MD process increased the nickel content in the wastewater by more than 100-fold from 0.31 to 33 g/L with only a 20% reduction in the process water flux and obtained pure fresh water. At such high concentration factors, the membrane surface was slightly fouled by inorganic precipitates; however, membrane pore wetting was not evident, confirmed by the purity of the obtained fresh water. The fouled membrane was effectively cleaned using a 3% HCl solution to restore its surface morphology. Finally, the preliminary thermal energy analysis of the combined MD-chemical precipitation/electrodeposition process reveals a considerable reduction in energy consumption of the nickel recovery process.

Nickel speciation of spent electroless nickel plating effluent along the typical sequential treatment scheme

The electroless nickel (EN) industry has suffered from the reduction in Ni concentration to lower than 0.1 mg/L. Hence, Ni speciation along a typical sequential treatment scheme has important implications to optimize the design of advanced treatment. For the first time, we revealed the Ni speciation in segmented EN outfall effluents by virtue of multiple analytical methods. After ensuring all the Ni-bearing complexes were completely dissolved by size-fractioned ultrafiltration trials, customized mass spectra analysis was conducted. In a series of ICP-MS assays, the potential polyatomic interfering species was primarily excluded. The chromatography hyphenated IC-ICP-MS and SEC-ICP-MS results demonstrated that the dominant Ni species in the EN effluents was similar to EDTA-Ni but with a smaller size. The LC-MS experiment further distinguished several typical Ni-bearing complexes. Although Ni concentration declined continuously along the treatment scheme, the number of detected Ni-bearing complexes gradually increased but with lower molecular weights. Most of the detected mononuclear complexes had higher indexes of hydrogen deficiency (IHD) than EDTA-Ni, whereas it was believed that the similar stereo ring shape was widespread in the EN effluent. Considering the efficient Ni decrease after the Fenton unit, further post-treatment approaches featuring higher active radical yields were suggested.

Brown marine macroalgae as natural cation exchangers for toxic metal removal from industrial wastewaters: A review

The discharge of inadequately treated or untreated industrial wastewaters has greatly contributed to the release of contaminants into the environment, including toxic metals. Toxic metals are persistent and bioaccumulative, being their removal from wastewaters prior to release into water bodies of great concern. Literature reports the use of brown marine macroalgae for toxic metals removal from aqueous solutions as an economic and eco-friendly technique, even when applied to diluted solutions. Minor attention has been given to the application of this technique in the treatment of real wastewaters, which present a complex composition that can compromise the biosorption performance. Therefore, the main goal of this comprehensive review is to critically outline studies that: (i) applied brown marine macroalgae as natural cation exchanger for toxic metals removal from real and complex matrices; (ii) optimised the biosorption process in a fixed-bed column, which was further scaled-up to pilot plants. An overview of toxic metals sources, chemistry and toxicity, which are relevant aspects to understand and develop treatment techniques, is initially presented. The problem of water resources pollution by toxic metals and more specifically the participation of metal finishing industries in the environmental contamination are issues also covered. The current and potential decontamination methods are presented including a discussion of their advantages and drawbacks. The literature on biosorption was reviewed in detail, considering especially the ion exchange properties of cell wall constituents, such as alginate and fucoidan, and their role in metal sequestration. Besides that, a detailed description of biosorption process design, especially in continuous mode, and the application of mechanistic models is addressed.

Synergistic green extraction of nickel ions from electroplating waste via mixtures of chelating and organophosphorus carrier

The discharge of electroplating waste containing nickel ions has led to environmental issues owing to the toxicity problem mainly to the aquatic organisms and humans. Liquid-liquid extraction offers a great potential treatment for nickel removal with several advantages of simple, high efficiency and high separation factor. In this study, a green synergistic liquid-liquid extraction of nickel ions from electroplating waste solution using chelating oxime (LIX63) and organophosphorus (D2EHPA) carriers individually as well as their synergistic mixture has been studied. The result demonstrated that about 83% of nickel ions have been successfully extracted via the mixture system of 0.08M LIX63 +0.02M D2EHPA with the maximum synergistic enhancement factor, R_max of 29.56. Meanwhile, the back extraction study also revealed that HNO₃ was the most suitable stripping agent while the diluent screening also showed that palm oil has high potential to be incorporated as a diluent in the green synergistic liquid-liquid extraction of nickel.