Recovery of copper salts by fluidized-bed homogeneous granulation process: High selectivity on malachite crystallization

Anthropogenic copper content in water is of health and environmental concern. Copper recovery from polluted effluents may become a possible dual solution for copper scarcity and copper pollution. In this work we study the possible removal and recovery of copper by fluidized-bed homogeneous crystallization (FBHC) from metallurgy industry effluents. This emergent technology may allow recovering high pure copper salts as granules for their ulterior reuse in different applications. Operational parameters of FBHC were optimized allowing up to 92% of copper recovery. The characterization of the spheroidal crystals obtained allowed identifying malachite as the unique crystal phase.