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Final Report: Metal Recovery and Reuse Using an Integrated Vermiculite Ion Exchange - Acid Recovery System
EPA Grant Number: R825549C017Subproject: this is subproject number 017 , established and managed by the Center Director under grant R825549
(EPA does not fund or establish subprojects; EPA awards and manages the overall grant for this center).
Center: HSRC (1989) - Great Plains/Rocky Mountain HSRC
Center Director: Erickson, Larry E.
Title: Metal Recovery and Reuse Using an Integrated Vermiculite Ion Exchange - Acid Recovery System
Investigators: Keefer, Gary B.
Institution: University of Nebraska at Lincoln
EPA Project Officer: Manty, Dale
Project Period: February 1, 1989 through September 1, 1990
Project Amount: Refer to main center abstract for funding details.
RFA: Hazardous Substance Research Centers - HSRC (1989)
Research Category: Heavy Metal Contamination of Soil/Water
Description:
Objective:The goal of this research is to evaluate and optimize a system for zinc recovery and reuse from plating wastewaters or contaminated groundwater. Summary/Accomplishments (Outputs/Outcomes):
The metal plating process currently creates large quantities of metal-contaminated waste (pickle liquor). This wastewater is commonly treated by neutralization resulting in the production of metal laden waste sludges. The research evaluated a system for metal recovery for reuse in the plating process while producing a non-hazardous liquid waste stream and a spent vermiculite which could also be disposed as a non-hazardous material.
A system which uses a multiple countercurrent, vermiculite, ion exchange column treatment process has been developed to treat zinc plating wastewaters or zinc contaminated goundwaters. Three columns are used in series, with the pH of the influent wastewater to each being adjusted progressively higher to aid in the zinc removal process. In addition, as the columns become expended on the front end of the system, they have been exposed to the lowest system pH. This pH adjustment scheme therefore, aids in both the metal removal process and in the acid recovery of the zinc by minimizing the acid requirement. Once the columns are exhausted, they are acid leached for zinc recovery.
The preliminary batch tests indicated that the Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC) for the vermiculite increased with increasing pH's. As the pH exceeded 7.6, however, precipitation of the zinc occurred. This indicated that the use of near neutral pH's in the final column of the three column system would help optimize the system. The results from the expanded column indicated that it did not perform better than a standard confined column which were then specified for the remainder of the research.
When the multiple column system was used to treat wastewaters containing 100, 200, and 300 mg/1 of zinc, system CECs of 30, 27, and 23 meq/100g respectively were obtained. These values represented bed utilizations of 91, 81, and 65% respectively. With the column detention times utilized it was projected that a waste containing approximately 39 mg/l of zinc would result in near 100% bed utilization. This process was therefore judged to be most appropriate for wastes containing 100 mg/l or less of zinc.
Exposure of the spent vermiculite to a 0.3 N HCl leach resulted in near total zinc recovery. When the leached vermiculite was run through the TCLP only trace amounts of zinc were released. The expended vermiculite samples which had not been acid leached released an average of 43% of their zinc in the TCLP indicating that some type of pretreatment of the vermiculite would likely be necessary before final disposal.
The economic analysis, which compared the cost of a standard chelating resin to the cost of vermiculite for treating wastewaters containing 25 and 100 mg/1 zinc showed that the vermiculite system cost was competitive at the lower waste strength. The annual costs in $/1000 gallons were $1.40 for the vermiculite and $2.14 for the chelating resin when treating a wastewater containing 25 mg/1 zinc. However, for the 100 mg/1 wastewater, the annual cost for the vermiculite was $4.97/1000 gallons while the cost of the chelating resin was only $2.17.
The results have been presented at professional meetings and communicated to interested parties.
Journal Articles:No journal articles submitted with this report: View all 6 publications for this subproject
Supplemental Keywords:Vermiculite, metal, ion exchange, recovery, reuse. , Water, Geographic Area, Scientific Discipline, Waste, RFA, Remediation, Wastewater, Analytical Chemistry, Chemistry, Hazardous Waste, EPA Region, Environmental Chemistry, Contaminated Sediments, Groundwater remediation, Hazardous, Ecology and Ecosystems, Geochemistry, heavy metal contamination, heavy metals, wastewater treatment, fate and transport, fate and transport , wastewater remediation, soil and groundwater remediation, heavy metal recovery, mining wastes, acid mine runoff, plating wastewater, acid mine drainage, groundwater, contaminated aquifers, metal removal, contaminated sediment, hazardous wate, metal recovery, mining waste, contaminant transport, Region 8, vermiculite ion exchange, Zinc, contaminated soil, groundwater contamination, bioremediation of soils, bioremediation, contaminated groundwater, sediment treatment, Region 7
Relevant Websites:
Progress and Final Reports:
Original Abstract
Main Center Abstract and Reports:
R825549 HSRC (1989) - Great Plains/Rocky Mountain HSRC
Subprojects under this Center:
(EPA does not fund or establish subprojects; EPA awards and manages the overall grant for this center).
R825549C006 Fate of Trichloroethylene (TCE) in Plant/Soil Systems
R825549C007 Experimental Study of Stabilization/Solidification of Hazardous Wastes
R825549C008 Modeling Dissolved Oxygen, Nitrate and Pesticide Contamination in the Subsurface Environment
R825549C009 Vadose Zone Decontamination by Air Venting
R825549C010 Thermochemical Treatment of Hazardous Wastes
R825549C011 Development, Characterization and Evaluation of Adsorbent Regeneration Processes for Treament of Hazardous Waste
R825549C012 Computer Method to Estimate Safe Level Water Quality Concentrations for Organic Chemicals
R825549C013 Removal of Nitrogenous Pesticides from Rural Well-Water Supplies by Enzymatic Ozonation Process
R825549C014 The Characterization and Treatment of Hazardous Materials from Metal/Mineral Processing Wastes
R825549C015 Adsorption of Hazardous Substances onto Soil Constituents
R825549C016 Reclamation of Metal and Mining Contaminated Superfund Sites using Sewage Sludge/Fly Ash Amendment
R825549C017 Metal Recovery and Reuse Using an Integrated Vermiculite Ion Exchange - Acid Recovery System
R825549C018 Removal of Heavy Metals from Hazardous Wastes by Protein Complexation for their Ultimate Recovery and Reuse
R825549C019 Development of In-situ Biodegradation Technology
R825549C020 Migration and Biodegradation of Pentachlorophenol in Soil Environment
R825549C021 Deep-Rooted Poplar Trees as an Innovative Treatment Technology for Pesticide and Toxic Organics Removal from Soil and Groundwater
R825549C022 In-situ Soil and Aquifer Decontaminaiton using Hydrogen Peroxide and Fenton's Reagent
R825549C023 Simulation of Three-Dimensional Transport of Hazardous Chemicals in Heterogeneous Soil Cores Using X-ray Computed Tomography
R825549C024 The Response of Natural Groundwater Bacteria to Groundwater Contamination by Gasoline in a Karst Region
R825549C025 An Electrochemical Method for Acid Mine Drainage Remediation and Metals Recovery
R825549C026 Sulfide Size and Morphology Identificaiton for Remediation of Acid Producing Mine Wastes
R825549C027 Heavy Metals Removal from Dilute Aqueous Solutions using Biopolymers
R825549C028 Neutron Activation Analysis for Heavy Metal Contaminants in the Environment
R825549C029 Reducing Heavy Metal Availability to Perennial Grasses and Row-Crops Grown on Contaminated Soils and Mine Spoils
R825549C030 Alachlor and Atrazine Losses from Runoff and Erosion in the Blue River Basin
R825549C031 Biodetoxification of Mixed Solid and Hazardous Wastes by Staged Anaerobic Fermentation Conducted at Separate Redox and pH Environments
R825549C032 Time Dependent Movement of Dioxin and Related Compounds in Soil
R825549C033 Impact of Soil Microflora on Revegetation Efforts in Southeast Kansas
R825549C034 Modeling the use of Plants in Remediation of Soil and Groundwater Contaminated by Hazardous Organic Substances
R825549C035 Development of Electrochemical Processes for Improved Treatment of Lead Wastes
R825549C036 Innovative Treatment and Bank Stabilization of Metals-Contaminated Soils and Tailings along Whitewood Creek, South Dakota
R825549C037 Formation and Transformation of Pesticide Degradation Products Under Various Electron Acceptor Conditions
R825549C038 The Effect of Redox Conditions on Transformations of Carbon Tetrachloride
R825549C039 Remediation of Soil Contaminated with an Organic Phase
R825549C040 Intelligent Process Design and Control for the Minimization of Waste Production and Treatment of Hazardous Waste
R825549C041 Heavy Metals Removal from Contaminated Water Solutions
R825549C042 Metals Soil Pollution and Vegetative Remediation
R825549C043 Fate and Transport of Munitions Residues in Contaminated Soil
R825549C044 The Role of Metallic Iron in the Biotransformation of Chlorinated Xenobiotics
R825549C045 Use of Vegetation to Enhance Bioremediation of Surface Soils Contaminated with Pesticide Wastes
R825549C046 Fate and Transport of Heavy Metals and Radionuclides in Soil: The Impacts of Vegetation
R825549C047 Vegetative Interceptor Zones for Containment of Heavy Metal Pollutants
R825549C048 Acid-Producing Metalliferous Waste Reclamation by Material Reprocessing and Vegetative Stabilization
R825549C049 Laboratory and Field Evaluation of Upward Mobilization and Photodegradation of Polychlorinated Dibenzo-P-Dioxins and Furans in Soil
R825549C050 Evaluation of Biosparging Performance and Process Fundamentals for Site Remediation
R825549C051 Field Scale Bioremediation: Relationship of Parent Compound Disappearance to Humification, Mineralization, Leaching, Volatilization of Transformaiton Intermediates
R825549C052 Chelating Extraction of Heavy Metals from Contaminated Soils
R825549C053 Application of Anaerobic and Multiple-Electron-Acceptor Bioremediation to Chlorinated Aliphatic Subsurface Contamination
R825549C054 Application of PGNAA Remote Sensing Methods to Real-Time, Non-Intrusive Determination of Contaminant Profiles in Soils
R825549C055 Design and Development of an Innovative Industrial Scale Process to Economically Treat Waste Zinc Residues
R825549C056 Remediation of Soils Contaminated with Wood-Treatment Chemicals (PCP and Creosote)
R825549C057 Effects of Surfactants on the Bioavailability and Biodegradation of Contaminants in Soils
R825549C058 Contaminant Binding to the Humin Fraction of Soil Organic Matter
R825549C059 Identifying Ground-Water Threats from Improperly Abandoned Boreholes
R825549C060 Uptake of BTEX Compounds by Hybrid Poplar Trees in Hazardous Waste Remediation
R825549C061 Biofilm Barriers for Waste Containment
R825549C062 Plant Assisted Remediation of Soil and Groundwater Contaminated by Hazardous Organic Substances: Experimental and Modeling Studies
R825549C063 Extension of Laboratory Validated Treatment and Remediation Technologies to Field Problems in Aquifer Soil and Water Contamination by Organic Waste Chemicals