Abstract

The main objective of this research is to study a new technology combining electrodialysis (ED) and electrocoagulation (EC) to remove the inorganic contaminants arsenic and copper present in wastewater from a copper smelting process, applying electrochemical processes at a low voltage. In this process, first arsenic and copper is removed from the wastewater by ED including copper recovery, and then the arsenic is precipitated as a low volume solid waste by EC - produced by the same current used to generate the ED. The process is evaluated in a batch setup, and the variables studied are the treatment time and the current density.