• Resources Recycling
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.12-18
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• 2023

In 2018, the demand for silver (referred to as Ag) in the electrical and electronics sector was 249 million tons. The demand stood at 81 million tons in the solar module production sector. Currently, due to the rapid increase in solar module installation, the demand for silver is increasing drastically in Korea. However, Korea's natural metal resources and reserves are insufficient in comparison to their consumption, and the domestic silver ore self-sufficiency rate was as low as 2.2% as of 2021. This implies that a recycling technology is necessary to recover valuable metal resources contained in the waste plating solution generated in the metal industry. Therefore, this study compared and analyzed, the results of the impact evaluation through life cycle assessment according to an improvement in the process of recovery of valuable metals in the waste plating solution. The process improvement resulted in reducing GWP (Global Warming Potential) and ADP(Abiotic Depletion Potential) by 50% and 67%, respectively. The GWP of electricity and industrial water was reduced by 98% and 93%, respectively, which significantly contributed to the minimization of energy and water consumption. Thus, the improvement in recycling technology has a high potential to reduce chemical and energy use and improve resource productivity in the urban mining industry.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.124-131
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• 2016

The toxic responses of flagellate Euglena agilis Carter to 8 heavy metals (Ag, Cd, Cr (VI), Cu, Hg, Ni, Pb, Zn) were measured using E. agilis system (E-Tox), an automated biomonitoring system. The E-Tox measures cell movement parameters, such as velocity, motility, and forms of the cells, as biological endpoints. $EC_{50}$ values from the E. agilis biomonitoring test were compared with the literature data from the tests with Daphnia magna, Vibrio fischeri and Euglena gracilis. Measurement of the E. agilis movement behavior and D. magna acute toxicity test were also conducted for the wastewater samples. E. agilis is less sensitive than D. magna but is comparable to or more sensitive than V. fischeri and E. gracilis for the heavy metals tested in this study. E. agilis shows prompt changes of these parameters for the toxic metal plating wastewater. Major advantages of the E-tox are automatic, easy to handle and fast ecotoxicity monitoring system compared to other biological test systems. These results imply that E. agilis biomonitoring test using E-Tox can be a putative ecotoxicity test as a good early warning tool for the monitoring of toxic wastewater.

• Clean Technology
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.75-80
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• 2001

In this study, hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI)) plating wastewater in strong acidic condition was treated by reduction and alkalization. Ferrous sulfate ($FeSO_4$), known to reduce Cr(VI) to Cr(III) rapidly at acidic pH, was used as a reductant of Cr(VI). The optimum reduction condition of Cr(VI) was observed at iron to chromium dose ratio of 3:1 by mole concentration. The precipitation of Cr(III) as $Cr(OH)_3$, was achieved by the pH adjustment in the limestone aeration bed. The precipitates were removed less than the upper limit of chromium for effluent at pH over 5.0. The continuous removal of Cr(VI) was performed using the process consisting of reduction vessel, limestone aeration bed, and sedimentation tank coupled with metal screen membrane. As pH was maintained around 5.0 in the limestone aeration bed, insoluble chromic hydroxide flocs was formed continuously. Most chromic hydroxide flocs were filtered by the metal screen membrane with 1450 mesh size, and the treated water to meet the upper limits of chromium for effluent (Cr Conc. 0.25~0.90 mg/l) was obtained in 30 minutes. Periodic backwashing decreased the fouling on the membrane rapidly.

• Clean Technology
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.168-173
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• 2021

The treatment of plated wastewater is subject to various and complex processes depending on the pH, heavy metal, and cyanide content of the wastewater. Alkali chlorine treatment using NaOCl is commonly used for cyanide treatment. However, if ammonia and cyanide are present simultaneously, NaOCl is consumed excessively to treat ammonia. To solve this problem, this study investigated 1) the consumption of NaOCl according to ammonia concentration in the alkaline chlorine method and 2) whether ferrate (VI) could selectively treat the cyanide. Experiments using simulated wastewater showed that the higher the ammonia concentration, the lower the cyanide removal rate, and the linear increase in NaOCl consumption according to the ammonia concentration. Removal of cyanide using ferrate (VI) confirmed the removal of cyanide regardless of ammonia concentration. Moreover, the removal rate of ammonia was low, so it was confirmed that the ferrate (VI) selectively eliminated the cyanide. The cyanide removal efficiency of ferrate (VI) was higher with lower pH and showed more than 99% regardless of the ferrate (VI) injection amount. The actual application to plated wastewater showed a high removal ratio of over 99% when the input mole ratio of ferrate (VI) and cyanide was 1:1, consistent with the molarity of the stoichiometry reaction method, which selectively removes cyanide from actual wastewater containing ammonia and other pollutants like the result of simulated wastewater.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.283-294
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• 2020

This work aims at studying the feasibility of continuous removal of mixed heavy metal ions from simulated zinc plating wastewaters by coupling a microbial fuel cell and a microbial electrolysis cell in batch and continuous modes. The discharging voltage of MFC increased initially from 0.4621 ± 0.0005 V to 0.4864 ± 0.0006 V as the initial concentration of Cr⁶⁺ increased from 10 ppm to 60 ppm. Almost complete removal of Cr⁶⁺ and low removal of Cu²⁺ occurred in MFC of the MFC-MEC-coupled system after 8 hours under the batch mode; removal efficiencies (REs) of Cr⁶⁺ and Cu²⁺ were 99.76% and 30.49%. After the same reaction time, REs of nickel and zinc ions were 55.15% and 76.21% in its MEC. Cu²⁺, Ni²⁺, and Zn²⁺ removal efficiencies of 54.98%, 30.63%, 55.04%, and 75.35% were achieved in the effluent within optimum HRT of 2 hours under the continuous mode. The incomplete removal of Cu²⁺, Ni²⁺ and Zn²⁺ ions in the effluent was due to the fact that the Cr⁶⁺ was almost completely consumed at the end of MFC reaction. After HRT of 12 hours, at the different sampling locations, Cr⁶⁺ and Cu²⁺ removal efficiencies in the cathodic chamber of MFC were 89.95% and 34.69%, respectively. 94.58%, 33.95%, 56.57%, and 75.76% were achieved for Cr⁶⁺, Cu²⁺, Ni²⁺ and Zn²⁺ in the cathodic chamber of MEC. It can be concluded that those metal ions can be removed completely by repeatedly passing high concentration of Cr⁶⁺ through the cathode chamber of MFC of the MFC-MEC-coupled system.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.212-215
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• 2016

We developed a new ecotoxicological test method using native test species, eggs of Ephemera orientalis, and five kinds of industrial wastewater were tested to validate the test method. The water samples were collected in Jun 2006 from the following industries: pesticide, metal plating, PCB, leather1, and leather2. Wastewater and effluent were diluted by distilled water, respectively, to prepare various concentrations, 100, 50, 25, 12.5, 6.3, 3.1, and 0%. For the egg bioassay, 20 freshly laid eggs (<24 h old) were exposed to test solutions in a Petri dish ($52{\times}12mm$) at $20^{\circ}C$ with photoperiod of 16 h light and 8 h dark for 14 days. The median egg hatching concentrations (EHC50) were estimated using Probit analysis. All EHC50s of wastewater were less than 3.1%, which meant very high ecotoxicity except for the wastewater of PCB industry having 6.1% of EHC50. Among the effluents, the least toxic effluent was from pesticide industry having 58% of EHC50, while the effluent of leather2 was the most toxic having 7.3% of EHC50.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.301-308
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• 2018

We investigated simultaneous removal of heavy metals such as Cr, Ni, and Zn by adsorption onto powdered activated carbon (PAC) and PAC modified with sodium diethyldithiocarbamate (PAC-SDDC). Modification of PAC was confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and Scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. Both PAC and PAC-SDDC reached adsorption equilibrium within 48 h, and the adsorption kinetics followed a pseudo-second order reaction kinetics. The removal of metals was enhanced with increasing both adsorbent dosage and followed the descending order of Cr > Ni > Zn for PAC and Cr > Zn > Ni for PAC-SDDC, respectively. Adsorption kinetics followed pseudo-second order kinetics. Adsorption kinetic results were well fitted by the Freundlich isotherm except for Cr adsorption onto PAC. The optimum pH for heavy metal adsorption onto PAC was 5, whereas that for PAC-SDDC ranged from 7 to 9, indicating that modification of PAC with SDDC significantly enhanced heavy metal adsorption, especially under neutral and alkaline pH conditions. Our results imply that SDDC modified PAC can be applied to effectively remove heavy metals especially Cr in plating wastewaters without adjusting pH from alkaline to neutral.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.3-16
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• 2004

There are over 190,000 tons per year of the sludge containing heavy metals (SHM) generated from industries in Korea. The SHM is so hazardous waste, it needs proper intermediate treatment before final disposal. At present, the common intermediate treatment and final disposal technologies of SHM are solidification and landfill. However, the future treatment and disposal technologies of SHM will be carry out to fulfill in both the environmental aspect and resource recycling. Thus, how to reduce the generation of SHM and recycle the valuable metal from SHM become the major subjects in the global world. In this article, in order to prospect the effective processing of SHM, the generation and processing of the sludge from plating wastewater, the research and development of valuable metal recycling technology and problems were summarized.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.55 no.4
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• pp.535-541
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• 2017

On the basis of 200 ppm of Ag and 120 l/h of feed flow rate, we built a pilot plant of an ion exchange fiber system having an double tube type ion exchange chamber with strong base ion exchange fiber (FIVAN A-6) which was designed to replace fibers easily and to eliminate the need for a fixture. The following results were obtained for the double tube type of ion exchange fiber system with an ion exchange capacity of 4.6 meq/g for Ag. The adsorption process was operated in the range of 40~90 l/h after confirming the effect of the flow rate and, pH did not affect formation of complex ion of Ag in the range of pH 7~12. In the case of backwash process, the recovery rate of Ag was tested in the range of 60~120 l/h and comparative experiments were carried out using NaOH, $NH_4Cl$, and NaCl as the chemicals for backwash. Although the desorption time was shortened at higher concentration, the desorption efficiency per mol was lowered. Therefore, it was confirmed that the desorption time and the concentration should be well balanced to operate economically. The desorption pattern of the backwash process is slower than the adsorption process and takes a lot of time. The results showed that the Ag adsorption ratio was 99.5% or more and the Ag recovery ratio was 96% or more, and commercialization was possible.