• Resources Recycling
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.28-38
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• 2004

The characteristics of cyanide decomposition in aqueous phase by electric oxidization have been explored in an effort to develop a process to recycle waste water. Considering current efficiency and voltage, the free cyanide decomposition experiment by electric oxidization indicated that 5 V of voltage and copper catalytic Cu/CN mole ratio 0.05 was the most appropriate condition, where current efficiency was 26%, and decomposition speed was 5.6 mM/min. High voltage and excess copper addition increased decomposition speed a little bit but not current efficiency. The experiment of free cyanide density change proves that high density cyanide is preferred because speed and current efficiency increase with density. Also, the overall decomposition reaction could be represented by the first order with respcect to cyanide with the rate constant of $1.6∼7.3${\times}$10^{-3}$ $min^{-1}$ The mass transfer coefficient of electric oxidization of cyanide came out as $2.42${\times}$10^{-5}$ $min^{-1}$ Furthermore, the Damkohler number was calculated as 5.7 in case of 7 V and it was found that the mass transfer stage was the rate determining step.