Wastewater cadmium

Heavy Metals. Heavy metals of particular concern in the treatment of wastewaters include copper, chromium, 2inc, cadmium, mercury, lead, and nickel. They are usually present in the form of organic complexes, especially in wastewaters generated from textiles finishing and dye chemicals manufacture. 

Precipitation is often applied to the removal of most metals from wastewater including zinc, cadmium, chromium, copper, fluoride, lead, manganese, and mercury. Also, certain anionic species can be removed by precipitation, such as phosphate, sulfate, and fluoride. Note that in some cases, organic compounds may form organometallic complexes with metals, which could inhibit precipitation. Cyanide and other ions in the wastewater may also complex with metals, making treatment by precipitation less efficient. A cutaway view of a rapid sand filter that is most often used in a municipal treatment plant is illustrated in Figure 4. The design features of this filter have been relied upon for more than 60 years in municipal applications. 

The wastewater contains Cd +, so an anion must also be present in the solution to balance the charge of the cadmium ions. Other species may exist as well. The problem asks only about the cadmium in the wastewater, so assume that any other ions are spectators. The sodium hydroxide solution contains Na and OH, so the major species in the treated wastewater include B.2 O, Cd ", OH", and Na. The equilibrium constant for the precipitation reaction is the inverse of for Cd (OH)2 ... 

The pollutants of concern are the same as in wet basic oxygen furnaces, but the concentration of metals (primarily lead and zinc, but also arsenic, cadmium, copper, chromium, and selenium) in wastewater is higher because of the higher percentage of scrap charged. Wastewater treatment operations are similar to those for the wet basic oxygen furnaces, including sedimentation in clarifiers or thickeners and recycle of the water.14... 

Wastewater is generated in the primary zinc and primary cadmium recovery subcategories by acid plant blowdown, which results from sulfuric acid recovery, air pollution control, leaching, anode/ cathode washing, and contact cooling. The streams may contain significant concentrations of lead, arsenic, cadmium, and zinc. Tables 3.26 and 3.27 present classical and toxic pollutant data for the primary zinc and primary cadmium subcategories. 

Concentrations of Classical Pollutants in the Raw Wastewater of the Primary Zinc and Cadmium Subcategories... 

Many toxic pollutants were detected in the process wastewaters from metal molding and casting processes. The toxic pollutants detected most frequently in concentrations at or above 0.1 mg/L were phenolic compounds and heavy metals. The pollutants include 2,4,6-trichlorophenol, 2,4-dimethyl-phenol, phenol, 2-ethylhexyl, cadmium, chromium, copper, lead, nickel, and zinc. Each type of operation in the foundry industry can produce different types of pollutants in the wastewater stream. Also, because each subcategory operation often involves different processes, pollutant concentrations per casting metals may vary. 

Metals have been shown to negatively affect nitrogen transformation and urea hydrolysis. For example, Antil et al.69 discovered that the microbial biomass in a soil receiving sewer water or industrial wastewater decreased with increasing concentrations of cadmium and nickel. The rate of urea hydrolysis was 1.6 times greater in an uncontaminated soil than in a soil containing 0.026 mg Ni g 1. Ammonium concentrations increased for up to 14 days in a soil containing over... 

Antil, R.S., Gupta, A.P., and Narwal, R.P., Nitrogen transformation and microbial biomass content in soil contaminated with nickel and cadmium from industrial wastewater irrigation, Urban Water, 3 (4), 299-302, 2001. 

Prominent among the heavy metals found in the wastewater generated in the copper sulfate industry are copper, arsenic, cadmium, nickel, antimony, lead, chromium, and zinc (Table 22.11). They are traced to the copper and acids sources used as raw materials. These pollutants are generally removed by precipitation, clarification, gravity separation, centrifugation, and filtration. Alkaline precipitation at pH values between 7 and 10 can eradicate copper, nickel, cadmium, and zinc in the wastewater, while the quantity of arsenic can be reduced through the same process at a higher pH value. 

As was indicated in the previous section, the concentration of iron in the mixed wastewaters ranged from 5980 to 6100 mg/L its pH was 0.7 and zinc concentration was 15 pg/L. Since these wastewaters come only from acid baths and not from other processes of the plant, parameters such as cadmium and fluoride are not encountered. The discharge standards for the metal industry effluents set by the Turkish Water Pollution Control Regulation (Official Gazette, Table 15.7, September 4, 1988) are shown in Table 28.10.1... 

Cadmium (Cd) anode cells are at present manufactured based on nickel-cadmium, silver-cadmium, and mercury-cadmium couples. Thus wastewater streams from cadmium-based battery industries carry toxic metals cadmium, nickel, silver, and mercury, of which Cd is regarded the most hazardous. It is estimated that globally, manufacturing activities add about 3-10 times more Cd to the atmosphere than from natural resources such as forest fire and volcanic emissions. As a matter of fact, some studies have shown that NiCd batteries contribute almost 80% of cadmium to the environment,4,23 while the atmosphere is contaminated when cadmium is smelted and released as vapor into the atmosphere4 Consequently, terrestrial, aquatic, and atmospheric environments become contaminated with cadmium and remain reservoirs for human cadmium poisoning. 

Chemical precipitation. Chemical precipitation followed by solids separation is particularly useful for separating heavy metals. The heavy metals of particular concern in the treatment of wastewaters include cadmium, chromium, copper, lead, mercury, nickel and zinc. This is a particular problem in the manufacture of dyes and textiles and in metal processes such as pickling, galvanizing and plating. 

Lee K.W., Keeney D.R. Cadmium and zinc additions to Wisconsin soils by commercial fertilizers and wastewater sludge application. Water Air Soil Pollut 1975 5 109-112. 

Hexavalent chromium is also a toxic compound (like lead, cadmium, mercury) and can be easily detected with UV spectrophotometry [20]. This system works for the quality control of electroplating treated wastewater with a detection limit of 5 pg It1. 

When we look at biological systems, the problem of re-release is particularly critical. In wastewater treatment Nitrogen control and Phosphorous control have been identified as critical elements in preventing algal blooms downstream from wastewater treatment plants. Part of the problem in designing the wastewater process is control of the re-release of these compounds. Nitrogen can be reduced back to a gas, but Phosphorous has to be treated by precipitation to remove it Irom the wastewater stream. The same is true for almost any of the heavy toxic metals such as Arsenic, Lead, Copper, Uranium, and Cadmium to name a few. Safe to say, this is also a common problem with phyto-remediation systems. 

Trace metals (arsenic, cadmium, chromium, copper, nickel, lead, mercury, zinc) Industrial and municipal wastewaters runoff from urban areas and landfill erosion of contaminated soils and sediments atmospheric deposition Toxic effects including birth defects, reproductive failure, cancer, and systemic poisoning. 

In the pesticide industry, metals are used principally as catalysts or as raw materials that are incorporated into the active ingredients, for example, metallo-organic pesticides. Priority pollutant metals commonly incorporated into metallo-organic pesticides include arsenic, cadmium, copper, and mercury. For metals not incorporated into the active ingredients, copper is found or suspected in wastewaters from at least eight pesticides, where it is used as a raw material or catalyst zinc becomes part of the technical grade pesticide in seven processes and mercury is used as a catalyst in one pesticide process. Nonpriority pollutant metals such as manganese and tin are also used in pesticide processes. 

For removing low levels of priority metal pollutants from wastewater, using ferric chloride has been shown to be an effective and economical method [41]. The ferric salt forms iron oxyhydroxide, an amorphous precipitate in the wastewater. Pollutants are adsorbed onto and trapped within this precipitate, which is then settled out, leaving a clear effluent. The equipment is identical to that for metal hydroxide precipitation. Trace elements such as arsenic, selenium, chromium, cadmium, and lead can be removed by this method at varying pH values. Alternative methods of metals removal include ion exchange, oxidation or reduction, reverse osmosis, and activated carbon. 

Cadmium in acidified aqueous solution may be analyzed at trace levels by various instrumental techniques such as flame and furnace atomic absorption, and ICP emission spectrophotometry. Cadmium in solid matrices is extracted into aqueous phase by digestion with nitric acid prior to analysis. A much lower detection level may be obtained by ICP-mass spectrometry. Other instrumental techniques to analyze this metal include neutron activation analysis and anodic stripping voltammetry. Cadmium also may be measured in aqueous matrices by colorimetry. Cadmium ions react with dithizone to form a pink-red color that can be extracted with chloroform. The absorbance of the solution is measured by a spectrophotometer and the concentration is determined from a standard calibration curve (APHA, AWWA and WEF. 1999. Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater, 20th ed. Washington, DC American Public Health Association). The metal in the solid phase may be determined nondestructively by x-ray fluorescence or diffraction techniques. 

A number of Cd(II) sensors based mainly on the Ag2S/CdS mixtures [384, 385] and cadmium chelates [386] were described. Ito etal. [387] used an Ag2S/CdS ion-selective electrode for determination of cadmium ion in industrial wastewater by titration method. 

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