• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.6 no.5
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• pp.497-503
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• 1997

This study was performed to Investigate the utilization of waste concretes for neutralization and removal of heavy metals In plating wastewater, because waste concretes have been known to be very porous, to have high species surface area and to have alkaline minerals such as calcium. The results obtained from this research showed that waste concretes had a buffer capacity to neutralize an acidic alali system in plating wastewater. Generally, neutralization and removal rate of heavy metals were excellent in the increase of waste concrete amounts and a small size. Because a coefficient of correlation was high, it seemed that removal of heavy metals could be explained by Freundlich and Langmuir isotherms. If we reflected the adsorption capacity(k) and adsorption intensity(1/n) of Freundlich isotherm, we couldn't consider waste concretes as a good adsorbent. But, we could know that waste concretes were capable of removing a part of heavy metals. In point of building waste debris, if waste concretes substituted for a valuable adsorbent such as actuated carbon, they could look forward to an expected economical effect.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.16-20
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• 2007

Toxicity of metal plating wastewater was evaluated by using acute toxicity tests on Daphnia magna. To identify toxicants of metal plating wastewater, several manipulations such as solid phase extraction (SPE), ion exchange and graduated pH adjustment were used. The SPE test had no significant effect on baseline toxicity, suggesting absence of toxic non-polar organics in metal plating wastewater. However, anion exchange largely decreased the baseline toxicity by 88%, indicating the causative toxicants were inorganic anions. Considering high concentration of chromium in metal plating wastewater, it is thought the anion is Cr(VI) species. Graduated pH test showing independence of the toxicity on pH change strongly supports this assumption. However, as revealed by toxicity confirmation experiment, the initial toxicity of metal plating wastewater (24-h TU=435) was not explained only by Cr(VI) (24-h TU = 725 at $280\;mg\;L^{-1}$). Addition of nickel($29.5\;mg\;L^{-1}$) and copper ($26.5\;mg\;L^{-1}$) largely decreased the chromium toxicity up to 417 TU, indicating antagonistic interaction between heavy metals. This heavy metal interaction was successfully predicted by an equation of 24-h $TU\;=\;3.67\;{\times}\;\ln([Cu]\;+\;[Ni])\;+\;79.44$ at a fixed concentration of chromium.