Extraction of Copper from Liquid Effluents by Cementation in Agitated Vessels Equipped with Expanded Aluminum Cylindrical Sheets

The presence of high levels of heavy metals in wastewaters is known to pose a serious threat to the environment. Because of their numerous industrial, domestic, agricultural, medical, and technical applications, they are widely distributed in the environment, raising worries about their possible effects on human health and the environment. In this work, a cylindrical-expanded aluminum sheet placed in an agitated vessel was used to recover copper ions from synthetic wastewater. The influence of initial Cu2+ ion concentration, rotating speed, solution pH, aluminum mesh number, temperature, and the presence of different types of surfactants on the kinetics of the Cu+2 ions cementation was investigated. The current study found that the rate of copper cementation rises with increasing rotational speed, starting copper ion concentration, temperature, and the mesh number of the expanded aluminum cylindrical sheet, but the pH has no influence within range examined. Surfactants reduce the rate of cementation by a percentage ranging from 9.38 to 75.19 for cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTMAB) and 19.27 to 78.53 for sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) depending on mesh number and rpm. The mass transfer data of the present study have been correlated for by a dimensionless equation from which the rate of cementation can be estimated at various conditions within the range of the applicability of the equation. [GRAPHICS] .

Automated summary

The presence of high levels of heavy metals in wastewaters poses a serious threat to the environment. This study focuses on recovering copper ions from synthetic wastewater using an expanded aluminum sheet. The results show that the rate of copper cementation increases with factors such as rotational speed, copper ion concentration, temperature, and mesh number of the aluminum sheet. pH has no influence on the rate of cementation. Surfactants were found to reduce the rate of cementation.