Electroplating wastewater. Electroplating facilities and shops produce toxic solid waste in the form of ions of heavy metals, acids and alkalis that can cause water pollution. It is due to the electrochemical technology requiring large volumes of water.
Generally, the decontamination and neutralization of electroplating wastewater is performed by a special unit which uses reagent purification. Despite the mainstream use of this approach, it is not without flaws. Its drawback is ineffective wastewater treatment that leads to excess of unwanted substances in the water output. Other drawbacks of the reagent method are high reagent consumption and high salt content, which do not allow the water to return back into the cycle; it also requires large bulky equipment.
Therefore, scientists continue to search for new methods to improve the efficiency of existing technologies. A solution was found by GlobeCore in its vortex layer device (AVS). These devices were developed in the last century by Logvinenko. In his book “The Intensification of Technological Processes in a Vortex Layer Unit” he demonstrated the positive results obtained with the AVS in wastewater treatment. But the low capacity of the device precluded its mass introduction into the wastewater treatment industry, because a large industrial enterprise required many AVS units for neutralization of wastewater, until recently. The newly developed high-performance devices cover the necessary volumes of wastewater treatment.
The GlobeCore design department studied the effectiveness of the AVS for cleaning and neutralizing wastewater from electroplating facilities. The data is shown in the table below.
Heavy metal wastewater treatment from galvanizing plant using AVS 100
|
№ |
Parameter |
Rating |
Maximum concentration level (European Union legislation) |
|
|
Before treatment |
After treatment |
|||
| 1 |
рН |
1,75 |
6,74 |
6,5-8,5 |
| 2 |
Fe, mg/l |
9,7 |
2,77 |
2-20 |
| 3 |
Cu, mg/l |
18,29 |
0,65 |
0,1-4 |
| 4 |
Ni, mg/l |
5,8 |
<0,02 (not detected) |
0,5-3 |
| 5 |
Cr+6, mg/l |
19,08 |
<0,005 (not detected) |
0,1-0,5 |
The use of the AVS-100 vortex layer device in wastewater treatment from electroplating plants reduces the concentration of heavy metals to values not exceeding the maximum permissible concentration accepted in the European Union. It achieves complete absence of nickel and hexavalent chromium in the treated water and shows the possibilities of future use of the vortex layer devices in countries with more stringent demands for hexavalent chromium and nickel concentrations.
Wastewater treatment is immediate and does not require high expenditure of reagents. The sedimentation with the AVS occurs much faster than with a stirrer.