Abstract
Removal efficiencies of cyanide and a zinc–cyanide complex in solutions were studied by using an ion-exchange process at pH 10.0 and 12.0. An anion-exchange resin, AMBERLITE® IRA-402 Cl, was used to perform packed bed continuous experiments. For the initial 200 mg/l cyanide solution, the packed bed gave a cyanide effluent concentration of 0.2 mg/l at 80 bed volumes for both pH 10.0 and 12.0. Comparatively, in the mixture of 200 mg/l cyanide and 100 mg/l zinc, packed bed volumes were obtained as 80 and 90 at pH 10.0 and 12.0, respectively, to have 0.2 mg/l cyanide effluent concentrations. The packed beds were exhausted at 250 and 400 bed volumes for cyanide and zinc–cyanide complex solutions, respectively. Speciation calculations in Zn(II)/cyanide/OH− were used to interpret the results. The exchange capacities of the resin were determined as ∼1.2 and ∼0.9 meq/ml resin for cyanide and zinc–cyanide complex solutions, respectively, and were independent of pH in the studied pH range.
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This research is supported by the Graduate School, Chulalongkorn University and the National Research Center for Environmental and Hazardous Waste Management, Chulalongkorn University. We wish to thank an anonymous reviewer for useful comments to improve the manuscript.
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Osathaphan, K., Boonpitak, T., Laopirojana, T. et al. Removal of Cyanide and Zinc–Cyanide Complex by an Ion-Exchange Process. Water Air Soil Pollut 194, 179–183 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-008-9706-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-008-9706-z