Comprehensive evaluation on a prospective precipitation-flotation process for metal-ions removal from wastewater simulants

Toxic metal pollutants threaten water environment. It exists undesirably metal-ion concentration limits with conventional precipitation flotation, An enhanced precipitation flotation system focusing on efficient removal for bivalent metal-ions was researched. The system involved the addition of humics and Fe3+ to generate and regulate the precipitates. The characteristics of precipitates were investigated by particle analysis, conditional stability constants and DLVO theory calculations, and SEM&TEM imaging. The results reveal that metal-ions chelate with humics at low metal-ion concentration, with generating the limited micro-size precipitates of < 2.0 mu m, fractal dimension of 1.60-1.80 and precipitate efficiency of < 91.00%. By adding trivalent Fe3+, the macro-size precipitates are obtained with particle size of approximate 10.0 mu m, fractal dimension of 1.50-1.60, and nearly-total flotation removal of precipitate. The chelating interaction of Fe3+ with humics is the mainly regulating mechanism, which could enhance the conditional stability constants and the precipitate efficiency of metal-ions at low concentration. The desired precipitate particles are finally obtained by breaking the limitations of metal-ion concentration. Finally, the flotation removal of metal-ions from single or mixed solutions is respectively 99.10 +/- 0.10% for Cu2+ 99.60 +/- 0.10% for Pb2+, and 94.30 +/- 0.30% for Zn2+. Therefore, the enhanced precipitation flotation process is an efficient purification approach for metal-containing waste-waters.