• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.524-533
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• 2008

Industrial wastewater generated in the electroplating and metal finishing industries typically contain toxic free and complex metal cyanide with various heavy metals. Alkaline chlorination, the normal treatment method destroys only free cyanide, not complex metal cyanide. A novel treatment method has been developed which destroys both free and complex metal cyanide as compared with Practical Plant(I). Prior to the removal of complex metal cyanide by Fe/Zn coprecipitation and removal of others(Cu, Ni), Chromium is reduced from the hexavalent to the trivalent form by Sodium bisulfite(NaHSO$_3$), followed by alkaline-chlorination for the cyanide destruction. The maximum removal efficiency of chromium by reduction was found to be 99.92% under pH 2.0, ORP 250 mV for 0.5 hours. The removal efficiency of complex metal cyanide was max. 98.24%(residual CN: 4.50 mg/L) in pH 9.5, 240 rpm with 3.0 $\times$ 10$^{-4}$ mol of FeSO$_4$/ZnCl$_2$ for 0.5 hours. The removal efficiency of Cu, Ni using both hydroxide and sulfide precipitation was found to be max. 99.9% as Cu in 3.0 mol of Na$_2$S and 93.86% as Ni in 4.0 mol of Na$_2$S under pH 9.0$\sim$10.0, 240 rpm for 0.5 hours. The concentration of residual CN by alkaline-chlorination was 0.21 mg/L(removal efficiencies: 95.33%) under the following conditions; 1st Oxidation : pH 10.0, ORP 350 mV, reaction time 0.5 hours, 2nd Oxidation : pH 8.0, ORP 650 mV, reaction time 0.5 hours. It is important to note that the removal of free and complex metal cyanide from the electroplating wastewater should be employed by chromium reduction, Fe/Zn coprecipitation and, sulfide precipitation, followed by alkaline-chlorination for the Korean permissible limit of wastewater discharge, where the better results could be found as compared to the preceding paper as indicated in practical treatment(I).

• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.29-38
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• 2015

Cyanide can be leached out from the cyanidation method which has been used to extract high-purity gold and silver from ores, and it becomes a variety of cyanide complexes associated with heavy metals contained in ores. Such cyanide complexes are considered as persistent and non-degradable pollutants which cause adverse effects on humans and surrounding environments. Based on binding force between heavy metals and cyanide, cyanide complexes can be categorized weak acid dissociable (WAD) and strong acid dissociable (SAD). This study comparatively evaluated the performance of photo-catalytic process with regard to forms of cyanide complexes. In particular, both effects of UV LED wavelength and surface modification of photo-catalyst on the removal efficiency of cyanide complexes were investigated in detail. The results indicate that the performance of photo-catalytic oxidation is significantly affected by the form of cyanide complexes. In addition, the effect of UV LED wavelength on the removal efficiency was quite different between free cyanide and cyanide complexes associated with heavy metals. The results support that the surface modification of photo-catalyst, such as doping can improve overall performance of photo-catalytic oxidation of cyanide complexes.