Recovery and Recycling of Copper from Wastewater using Iron Coated GAC

Reddy, Kotha P.; ,

Recovery and Recycling of Copper from Wastewater using Iron Coated GAC

by Kotha P. Reddy, Illinois Inst of Technology, New Rochelle, United States,

Document Type: Proceeding Paper

Part of: Critical Issues in Water and Wastewater Treatment

Abstract:

The purpose of this study was to prepare composite adsorbents that could be packed into a column and have adsorption characteristics similar to Fe oxide. This adsorbent was targeted to remove low levels of copper from water to the adsorbent surface, subsequently desorb material at a different pH, and reuse the adsorbent. GAC (0.5 mm diameter) was coated with various amounts of Fe oxide, from 37 mg Fe/g GAC (37FeGAC) to 72 mg Fe/g GAC (72FeGAC). Adsorption characteristics were studied for copper removal. As the amount of iron coating on the adsorbent was increased the capacity and rate for copper adsorption increased. Experiments were carried out for short-term and long-term adsorption time periods of 2 and 24 h, respectively. Desorption efficiency (amount of adsorbed material recovered) of copper from GAC was 100% after 2 h adsorption time and dropped to 60% after 24 h adsorption time. Time did not have much effect on Fe oxide desorption efficiency but the FeGAC adsorbents showed the same trend as the GAC with even lower recovery after 24 h. The composite adsorbent can be packed into columns and used for copper removal and reuse.

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