A kinetic model to describe the nickel electro-recovery from industrial plating effluents under variable electrolyte conductivity

A reusable adsorbent polyethylenimine/polyvinyl chloride crosslinked fiber for Pd(II) recovery from acidic solutions

In this study, a mixture of polyethylenimine (PEI) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) was reacted at 80 °C for 6 h to synthesize crosslinked PEI/PVC polymer solution, which was injected to produce the PEI/PVC-crosslinked fiber (PEI/PVC-CF). PEI/PVC-CF was investigated as an adsorbent to remove and recover Pd(II) from acidic solutions. In order to examine the adsorption characteristics and usability of PEI/PVC-CF for Pd(II) recycling, several experiments such as isotherm, kinetics, desorption and reuse were conducted. The adsorption isotherms were fitted using the Langmuir and Freundlich models, respectively. The maximum adsorption capacity was estimated as 146.03 mg/g according to the Langmuir model. The kinetic experiments demonstrated that adsorbent reaches adsorption equilibrium within 60 min for initial Pd(II) concentrations of 25-100 mg/L. After adsorption, Pd(II) on PEI/PVC-CF was easily desorbed using acidified thiourea solution, and the desorption efficiency increased with the thiourea concentration. It was also demonstrated that PEI/PVC-CF can be used repeatedly for at least five cycles without reduction in adsorption capacity.

Electrochemical reactor with rotating cylinder electrode for optimum electrochemical recovery of nickel from plating rinsing effluents

This study is devoted to analyze the metallic electrochemical recovery of nickel from synthetic solutions simulating plating rinsing discharges, in order to meet the water recycling policies implemented in these industries. These effluents present dilute Ni(II) concentrations (100 and 200 ppm) in chloride and sulfate media without supporting electrolyte (397-4202 μS cm(-1)), which stems poor current distribution, limited mass transfer, ohmic drops and enhancement of parasitic reactions. An electrochemical reactor with rotating cylinder electrode (RCE) and a pH controller were utilized to overcome these problems. The pH control around 4 was crucial to yield high purity nickel, and thus prevent the precipitation of hydroxides and oxides. Macroelectrolysis experiments were systematically conducted to analyze the impacts of the applied current density in the recovery efficiency and energy consumption, particularly for very diluted effluents (100 and 200 ppm Ni(II)), which present major recovery problems. Promising nickel recoveries in the order of 90% were found in the former baths using a current density of -3.08 mA cm(-2), and with overall profits of 9.64 and 14.69 USD kg(-1), respectively. These estimations were based on the international market price for nickel ($18 USD kg(-1)).