Practical study on the electrochemical simultaneous removal of copper and cadmium from simulated wastewater using rotating tubular packed bed cathode

Abstract

The simultaneous removal of copper and cadmium from a simulated wastewater using rotating tubular packed bed of woven screens electrode was investigated. The effect of weight present of each metal on the removal efficiency and current efficiency was studied. The experiments were carried out at current 1.5 A, rotation speed 450 rpm, pH=2, and total concentration of metals (300 ppm) at different weight percent of each metal. The results showed that the removal efficiency of copper increased from 93.5 % to 99.33% as its weight percent increased from 20% to100%. In a similar fashion, the removal efficiency of cadmium increased from 80% to 90% as its weight percent increased from 20% to100 %. The results confirmed that the removal efficiency of any metals decreased in the presence of other metal. The results established that current efficiency for the simultaneous removal of copper and cadmium decreased with increasing of electrolysis time and Cd percent weight or decreasing of Cu weight percent. Current efficiency is higher at the initial stage of electrolysis and then declined with increasing time for all weight percent of metals.