Removal of cadmium and cyanide from aqueous solutions through electrodialysis

• Main Authors: Marder Luciano, Sulzbach Guilherme O., Bernardes Andréa M., Ferreira Jane Zoppas
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Sociedade Brasileira de Química 2003-01-01
• Series: Journal of the Brazilian Chemical Society
• Subjects: cadmium; cyanide; electrodialysis; wastewater
• Online Access: http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0103-50532003000400018

The discharge of galvanic industry wastewaters containing heavy metals and cyanide is one of the largest sources of water pollution. The use of the electrodialysis technique for the treatment of a synthetic wastewater containing approximately 0.0089 mol L-1 cadmium and 0.081 mol L-1 cyanide was studied using a five-compartment electrodialysis cell. The results demonstrate that the removal of cadmium and cyanide depends on the applied current density and it is limited by the precipitation of cadmium on the cation-exchange membrane in the diluate central cell compartment.