Heavy metal removal from copper smelting effluent using electrochemical cylindrical flow reactor

The purpose of this study is mainly to evaluate the performance of the continuous recirculation flow cell at low current density and pH (the pH at which the effluents are available) in removing heavy metals from copper smelting effluent by cathodic reduction. During the electrolysis at different pH, % removal of heavy metals removal, energy consumption and heterogeneous reaction rate constants were investigated at given flow rate and current density on the selected industrial effluent. The overall specific energy consumption at the pH 0.64 was observed to be lowest, which is 10.99 kWh/kg of heavy metal removal. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.