Mercury removal and recovery from aqueous solutions by coupled complexation–ultrafiltration and electrolysis

✍ Scribed by J Barron-Zambrano; S Laborie; Ph Viers; M Rakib; G Durand

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2004
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 209 KB
• Volume: 229
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0376-7388
• DOI: 10.1016/j.memsci.2003.10.028

✦ Synopsis

Removal of mercuric ions from wastewater by complexation-ultrafiltration using polyethylenimine (PEI) as complexing agent was previously studied. Conditions for rejection coefficients of mercury higher than 99.7% were obtained. The present work deals with the next operations: recycling of the PEI and recovery of the mercury from the concentrate of the first ultrafiltration. Direct electrodeposition of mercury using a packed bed flow-through (PBFT) cathode was carried out. Influence of operating parameters such as current intensity, pH, PEI and chloride ion concentration was studied. Depletion of mercury from 100 to 20 mg l -1 was achieved with a current efficiency of about 100% when the current density was 1.09 mA g -1 of graphite. A process based on coupled complexation-ultrafiltration and electrodeposition on PBFT cathode was proposed and tested. Design elements of the whole process were given.