Eletrochemical treatament of the cyanide wastewater using commercial noble metal oxide electrodes / Tratamento eletroquimico de efluentes cianidricos usando eletrodos comerciais de oxidos de metais nobres

AUTOR(ES)
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

2001

RESUMO

Inorganic cyanide is still in use in the metal finishing industry and in the mining activities of noble metals extraction and refining. Gold and silver are extracted from its ores as cyanidric complexes. The intensive industrial use of cyanide complexes is responsible for the generation of high toxicity aqueous streams, which present high oxygen demand. The cyanide wastes must be adequately treated before being allowed to discharge from de process plant. The main goal of the present work is to propose an alternative electrochemical process for removal of cyanide from wastewater, using an electrolytic cell with a commercial dimensionally stable anode (DSA®). In the first step, we studied the performance of two commercial dimensionally stable anode (DSA®) oxide coatings. The coatings studied were 70TiO2/30RuO2 and 55Ta205/45IrO2, on Ti substrate. The efficiency of both materials in the electro-oxidation of free cyanide was compared using linear voltammetry and electrolysis at constant potential. Kinetic analysis has shown that the 70TiO2/30RuO2 electrode is less catalytic for oxygen evolution and shows a better performance in the electro-oxidation of free cyanide. In the second step, we used a flow reactor with a Ti/70TiO2/30RuO2 (w/w) DSA® type electrode for the electro-oxidation of cyanide in a batch recirculating mode. The device performance was evaluated considering concentration decay of cyanide concentration as a function of current density, flow rate and the initial pollutant concentration. The experiments have shown that cyanide electro-oxidation presents a first order kinetic relative to CN ions. For the operational conditions used in the experiments, rate constant for cyanide oxidation was in the range of 3.0 10-5 to 2.7 10-4 m s-1, with an optimum value of 2.2 10-4 m s-1 for current density of 50 mA cm-2 and linear velocity of 0.22 m s-1. Using these parameters with 700 mg L-1 cyanide containing solution 34 kWh is consumed for the oxidation of one kilogram of cyanide. An electrochemical pilot scale, with the Ti/70TiO2/30RuO2 (w/w) DSA® type electrode, was also used for the electro-oxidation of cyanide in a batch recirculating mode. The device performance was evaluated considering concentration decay of cyanide concentration as a function of current density and the flow rate. For the operational conditions used in the experiments, rate constant for cyanide oxidation was 2.0 10-4 m s-1 for current density of 41 mA cm-2 and linear velocity of O.053 m s-1. Cost estimation, based on electrical energy consumption, showed that electrochemical oxidation is 5.5 times less expensive when compared to the chemical treatment using a 12% sodium hipochloride solution for the oxidation of one kilogram of cyanide

ASSUNTO(S)

cianetos cyanide electro-oxidation eletrochemical wastewater treatment cyanide eletrodos de oxidos eletrolise oxidação eletrolitica

ACESSO AO ARTIGO

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