Electrowinning Process for Copper Removal from Waste Brine and Critical Review
Open Access
- Author:
- Lee, Min Young
- Graduate Program:
- Environmental Pollution Control
- Degree:
- Master of Science
- Document Type:
- Master Thesis
- Date of Defense:
- February 13, 2024
- Committee Members:
- Yuefeng F Xie, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
Yuefeng F Xie, Committee Member
Shirley Clark, Professor in Charge/Director of Graduate Studies
Yen-Chih Chen, Committee Member
J. Mitch Spear, Committee Member - Keywords:
- Copper Removal
Electrowinning
Waste Brine
Wastewater Treatment
Critical Review - Abstract:
- Copper is one of the chemical elements that has been increasingly popular as civilization has advanced, particularly in the various sectors. However, copper, which is widely used in industrial applications, is also frequently found in high concentrations in wastewater. Several copper removal techniques have been utilized, and electrowinning process is commonly used to recover heavy metals by applying a voltage across electrodes immersed in a concentrated solution. Electrowinning procedure can be a way out of increasing copper concentrations in digested biosolids at the Pennsylvania State University Wastewater Treatment Plant in University Park. This main objective is to verify whether electrowinning could be applied for copper removal from actual waste brine at Penn State University’s Steam Plant. Also, identifying technical issues to be solved, is another goal for providing against long-term electrowinning operation at wastewater treatment. Multiple-case studies and removing dissolved copper from actual waste brine at Penn State University's Steam Plant was conducted. Before the research with actual waste brine, copper removal research was carried out in a 1000 L tank for 80 hours to find out whether the result is comparable to an experiment in a smaller tank. Copper had a 90% removal rate at 1 M brine after 80 hours in a large tank, as well as a small tank, indicating that wastewater sample from University can be treated with this process for copper removal. After determining whether the data is comparable to that of a small-scale tank experiment, copper removal was conducted with a synthetic waste brine solution from Penn State University's Steam Plant. Copper removal effects at a voltage at 3 V were around 74% reduction from 33.5 to 8.65 mg/L for 6 hours, whereas at 2 V and 2.5 V, just 30% removal was observed. More various voltages should be applied in copper removal from actual waste brine as well as operating long-term electrowinning at University Park Plant in follow-up study.