Recovery of copper using an electro MP - Cell operated in an electrogenerative mode

The electro MP - Cell operated in a batch recycle mode was used for the removal of copper in metallic form from aqueous solutions. The cell was modified to enable its use in an electrogenerative mode where a spontaneous chemical reaction occurred between the copper/zinc couple without the need for an external power supply. The cell used was a single compartment cell with two conventional electrodes, separated by a membrane and connected by a conducting wire to complete the circuit. Acidic copper(II) sulfate solution was used as catholyte and sodium chloride solution was used as anolyte. The performance of the proposed system was evaluated by examining the catholyte flow rate, initial copper(II) concentration, type of electrode material used, sulfuric acid concentration and anolyte concentration. The rate of recovery was found to be dependent on the parameters studied. Results have shown that this system was able to recover 99.91 +/- 0.03% of copper from 500 mg L-1 of acidic copper solution at a flow rate of 1000 mL min(-1) within 3.5 h operation. The MP - Cell with graphite as a cathode, zinc as an anode and anion exchange membrane (Neosepta AM-1) was proposed as the most efficient system in recovering copper. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.