Copper recovery from spent ammoniacal etching solutions

Copper recovery from spent ammoniacal etching

solutions
Dipl.-Eng. Ioanna Giannopoulou, Lect. - Dr. Dimitrios Panias and Prof. - Dr. Ioannis Paspaliaris
National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), School of Mining and Metallurgy Engineering,
Laboratory of Metallurgy.
9, Heroon Polytechniou str., 15780 Zografou Campus, Athens, GREECE

Abstract
The present work aims at studying the electrolytic recovery of copper from the spent ammoniacal
etching effluent of the printed circuit board production. The investigated spent ammoniacal etching
effluent is an alkaline solution with total ammonia concentration of 9.5 M, copper concentration
higher than 140g/l, and chloride concentration varying from 175 to 190 g/l. A pre-treatment of this
effluent with a strong basic anionic exchange resin in order to reduce the high chloride concentra-
tion to low level, allowing copper electrowinning without any corrosion problems created due to
anodic oxidation of chloride ions, is examined. Moreover, the effect of operating parameters during
copper electrowinning, including electrode arrangement, inter-electrode distance, electrolyte agita-
tion rate, current density, etc. on current efficiency and copper recovery are investigated. The re-
sults are used to determine the optimum conditions for economically feasible copper electrolytic
recovery from the spent ammoniacal etching solutions.

1. Introduction
Chemical etching process is used in the printed circuit board industry to remove a portion of copper
from the copper clad laminate in order that the circuit pattern will be developed. The copper dis-
solved away by etching process is about 50-70% of that originally present on the board [1]. Among
the etching solutions that are used in this process - ferric chloride, chromic-sulfuric acid, acidic cu-
pric chloride, ammoniacal cupric chloride, hydrogen peroxide/sulphuric acid and sodium or ammo-
nium persulphate - ammoniacal copper chloride is widely used nowadays, due to its special advan-
tages; it can be utilized in a more continuous manner that ensure an essentially constant etching
rate, is compatible with the most metallic and organic resists, presents high capacity of dissolved
copper and achieves fast etching rates [2].
The spent ammoniacal etching solution is an alkaline solution at a pH 8.5-9.5, having a typical cop-
per concentration of 140 to 160 g/l, a chloride concentration in the range of 175 to 190 g/l and a
molar ratio of ammonia to copper 4:1[2,3]. Usually this solution contains also trace quantities of

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Giannopoulou, Panias, Paspaliaris

organic and/or inorganic chemical additives required for the etching process. This composition
renders essential the treatment of this effluent before its discharge into the environment according
to the environmental requirements, while its high copper concentration creates an economic interest
for its treatment with such a method that could return an additional economic benefit from the metal
value recovery.
Existing treatment methods for removing metals from metal bearing industrial effluents fall into
three general categories: a) precipitation as insoluble metal compound, b) separation by adsorption,
electrostatic force, applied electrical potential and hydraulic or mechanical pressure and c) reduc-
tion by electrochemical methods to elemental metal.
Chemical precipitation methods are the most convenient methods for the treatment of metal bearing
effluents, with main advantages the compatibility with the most metals and the low treatment cost.
According to these methods insoluble metal compounds (hydroxides, sulphides, carbonates, etc.)
are produced, which are removed after settling, compaction and dewatering of the produced sludge.
Thus, precipitation methods turn the problem of a hazardous effluent discharge to a hazardous ma-
terial disposal problem, ignoring the benefits that will be resulted from the metal values recovery.
In many cases, the final sludge disposal cost could make precipitation methods uneconomic for the
treatment of metal bearing industrial effluents [4].
Separation technologies, as solvent extraction, ion exchange, adsorption on activated carbons, inor-
ganic materials, or other functional polymers, electrodialysis and reverse osmosis, are developed in
the last decades [5,6,7,8,9]. They achieve to remove hazardous substances from metal bearing ef-
fluents and contribute to the environmental protection, combining the recovery of useful chemical
compounds. However, separation methods are effective in dilute solutions and are economic only
under proper conditions, as long as they require particular equipment and materials and special
treatment conditions [4].
During the last years, the application of electrochemical methods is gaining increasing attention on
the metal bearing effluents treatment [10]. These methods have proved to be efficient in the treat-
ment of several types of industrial effluents containing heavy and/or toxic metals, though they have
high metal concentrations or strong complexing agents [11]. It concerns clean technologies, with
main advantages the direct and selective recovery of metals as pure material, the possibility of solu-
tion regeneration and water recycling and the avoidance of secondary wastes [12,13]. Electrochem-
ical methods deal with in-site effluent treatment, have medium to low capital, treatment and main-
tenance costs and produce very small wastewater volumes [4]. The only disadvantage of these
methods is the energy consumption that makes in certain cases, as in the case of low metal concen-
tration solutions, ineffective their application [10,12].
In the present work the electrolytic recovery of copper from the spent ammoniacal etching solution
of the printed circuit board production is studied. The spent etchant is combined in the same stream
with the wastewater resulted from the rinse stages that follow the etching process and an effluent
with the following composition is produced; copper 30.8g/l, chloride 38.5g/l and total ammonia

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 Copper recovery from spent ammoniacal etching solutions

2.09mol/l. Copper electrowinning takes place in a simple, undivided cell with copper cathodes and
316 stainless steel anodes. A pre-treatment of the waste effluent with a strong basic ion exchange
resin is suggested, in order to reduce chloride concentration to an acceptable for the electrolysis
application level avoiding anodic corrosion due to the chloride ions oxidation. The major parame-
ters affecting current efficiency and copper recovery from the spent ammoniacal etching solution
are investigated in order to determine the optimum process conditions from both, an environmental
and an economic point of view.

2. Experimental details
All the experiments of the present study were conducted in a batch, undivided, laboratory-scale cell,
which is illustrated in Figure 1. The cell was designed and constructed in acrylic material, with the
provision to insert five electrodes. The cathode was a copper plate having the following dimensions,
length 7.5 cm, width 6 cm and thickness 2 mm, while the anodes were of perforated 316 stainless
steel plates and had the same dimensions as those of the cathode. The electrodes were placed verti-
cally in the cell, at a distance of 1 cm from the bottom of the cell.

Figure 1: Schematic view of the experimental setup (1, DC power source; 2, anodes; 3, cathode;
4, stirring bar; 5, electrolytic cell; 6, magnetic stirrer).
The experiments were carried out at room temperature; during electrolysis solutions were neither
heated nor cooled (except heating by the current flow through the solution). The electric power was
supplied by a stabilized power source with current voltage monitoring and control in the range of 0-
5V. All experiments were carried out under galvanostatic conditions; cell voltage was allowed to
vary so that electrolysis was carried out at a constant current. The electrolyte agitation was per-
formed by a magnetic stirrer. Agitation increases the effective surface area of cathode and minimiz-
es the thickness of the boundary layer in a manner to avoid electrodes polarization [14].
The synthetic solutions used for the present study were prepared from reagent grade copper sulfate
pentahydrate, copper chloride, ammonia solution and distilled water. These solutions contained

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Giannopoulou, Panias, Paspaliaris

30.8g/l copper, 35.7g/l sulfate, 8g/l chloride and 2.09mol/l total NH3, in a way to simulate the efflu-
ent resulted from the alkaline etching process of a printed circuit board process. Three parameters
were investigated in order to determine the optimum conditions for copper electrowinning from this
effluent: inter-electrode distance, stirring speed of the electrolyte and applied current density.
During electrolysis experiments small samples of solution were taken every 15 min for copper
analysis by atomic absorption spectrophotometry (Perkin Elmer 2100). The current efficiency was
calculated from the reduction of copper concentration in the solution.

3. Results and discussion

3.1 Complexation equilibria in the aqueous Cu-NH3 solutions

Ammonia acts as a molecular ligand for the formation of stable ammine copper(II) complexes.
From the species distribution diagrams of copper(II) ions in aqueous ammoniacal solutions as a
function of the solution pH [15], it was found that the ammine copper(II) complex ions,
Cu(NH3)n2+, absolutely dominates at pH 2 to 13. Among these complex ions, the tetraammine cop-
per(II) complex ion, Cu(NH3)42+, is the most important, having a broad stability area extended from
pH 5 to pH 14. Practically, Cu(NH3)42+ is the only copper(II) species in ammoniacal solutions with
pH varies from 8 to 11. As the pH of the spent ammoniacal solutions resulted from the etching pro-
cedure of the printed circuit board production ranges from 8.5 to 9.5, it is evident that the whole
copper exists as the Cu(NH3)42+ complex ion in that effluent.

3.2 Electrode reactions involved in the electrolytic cell

When a current is applied to the electrolytic cell, one of the following reduction reactions is possi-
ble to occur at the cathode [16]:
Cu(NH3)42+ + 2e- → Cu0 + 4NH3 E0 = - 0.0473 V (1)
2H+ + 2e- → H2 E0 = 0 V (2)
whereas one of the following oxidation reactions at the anodes [16]:
O2 + 4H+ + 4e- → 2H2O E0 = + 1.229 V (3)
O2 + 2H2O + 4e- → 4OH- E0 = + 0.401 V (4)
Cl2 + 2e- → 2Cl- E0 = + 1.3597 V (5)
Among the possible reduction reactions, the main cathodic reaction of the electrolytic cell is the
reduction of the tetraammine copper(II) complex ion, Cu(NH3)42+, according to the Eq. (1). The

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 Copper recovery from spent ammoniacal etching solutions

evolution of H2 gas, according Eq. (2), is the main side reaction at the cathode, which more or less
reduces the current efficiency.
From the oxidation reactions mentioned above, reaction (3) occurs in acidic solutions and reaction
(4) in alkaline solutions. As the investigated solutions are alkaline the expected anodic reaction is
the oxygen production according to Eq. (4). Considering the redox formal potentials, chloride oxi-
dation is not expected, as indicated in Eqs (4) and (5). In reality, currents applied during the electro-
lysis of the investigated solution create significant overvoltages in a way that made chloride oxida-
tion the favorable anodic reaction. Chlorine evolution at the anode electrode causes several
corrosion problems on it and for that reason it is necessary to remove chloride ions from the spent
etching solutions before the application of electrolysis. Thus, a pretreatment of this effluent in order
to reduce the chloride concentration at such a level that permit the application of electrolysis with-
out corrosion problems at the anode, is necessary.

3.3 Pre-treatment of the effluent to decrease chloride concentration

To avoid corrosion problems caused due to the chlorine formation at the anode as result of the chlo-
ride oxidation during electrolysis, it is suggested a solution pre-treatment with a strong basic anio-
nic exchange resin in order to reduce chloride concentration to an acceptable for the application of
electrolysis level. A commercially available strong base anion exchange resin was chosen for this
pre-treatment, AMBERLITE IRA900 that is a product of Rohm and Haas Company, Philadelphia,
USA.
Sulfate ion was selected to replace chloride ion in the alkaline solutions. As sulfate ions contain the
central atom of sulfur at its higher oxidation state, it is impossible to participate in oxidation reac-
tions that took place at the anode of the electrolytic cell. Experiments of electrolysis of sulfate cop-
per alkaline solution showed that the oxygen evolution was the preferable anodic reaction and thus,
corrosion phenomena at the electrode were avoided. Solutions with different chloride concentration
were tested in order to determine the maximum chloride level in the spent alkaline etching solution,
which does not create corrosion problems to the anode during electrolytic recovery of copper from
such solutions. The optimum chloride concentration in the solutions for the application of electroly-
sis was determined at 8 g/l; at higher chloride concentrations anodic corrosion phenomena were
observed.
Equilibria between the chloride and sulfate forms of the AMBERLITE IRA900 anion exchanger is
described by the following reaction:
2RCl (org) + SO4-2 (aq) = R2SO4 (org) + 2Cl- (aq) (6)
where R represents the resin molecule, and “aq” and “org” the respective aqueous and organic
phases. The shift of equilibria to the right direction describes the stage of resin regeneration, while
the opposite direction describes the resin loading. Kinetic studies on resin regeneration and loading

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Giannopoulou, Panias, Paspaliaris

stages have shown that the exchange reactions are rapid and the equilibrium is attained within 30
minutes.
A summary of the results demonstrating the performance of AMBERLITE IRA900 resin under re-
generation and loading conditions is shown in Figure 2. In this Figure the % efficiency of both, re-
sin loading and regeneration stages is plotted against the % ratio of the resin to solution volumes.
The % efficiency of the resin is defined as the percentage of resin surface sites that are exchanged
during the loading and regeneration stages. The term “solution” means a solution of Na2SO4 1N in
the case of the resin regeneration and a solution of NaCl 1N in the case of the resin loading. The
results show that the resin loading stage is more efficient rather than the regeneration stage under
the same conditions. This observation means that the equilibrium of the reaction presented by Eq.
(6) is shifted to the left direction rather than to the right direction.

100 Loading

80 Regeneration
Efficiency , %

60

40

20

0
0 50 100 150
Vresin/Vsolution, %

Figure 2: Regeneration and loading experimental curves of the strong anionic exchange resin
AMBERLITE IRA900.
Moreover, both processes reach 100% efficiency under very low V(resin)/V(solution) ratios. Based
on this results a mathematical model was developed that predicts all the possible combinations of
V(resin)/V(solution) ratio at regeneration and loading stages resulting a reduction to the chloride
concentration of 1 liter of solution from 38.5g/l to less than 8g/l. The optimum combination of
V(resin)/V(solution) ratio at both stages was selected based on the method of minimization of the
total cost of the whole process of resin regeneration and loading. For the experimental verification
of the model, one liter of synthetic spent ammoniacal etching solution with initial chloride concen-
tration 38.5g/l was treated in a two stages loading process. The V(resin)/V(solution) ratio in each
loading stage was equal to 1:0.9 and the solution after the whole treatment had a final chloride con-
centration of 7g/l.

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 Copper recovery from spent ammoniacal etching solutions

3.4 Effect of electrodes arrangement and inter-electrode distance

The spent ammoniacal etching solution is a potent copper solvent and for that reason chemical dis-
solution was taken place at the copper electrode surface that was located out of the electric field
developed between electrodes and thus, exposed to the alkaline etching solution. The copper
chemical dissolution was taken place along with copper recovery, at any arrangements of the form
“anode-cathode”.
In order to avoid this phenomenon, the electrode arrangement that was employed in all the experi-
ments of the present work was anode-cathode-anode. The copper cathodic electrode was included
between the two anodic electrodes in such a way that the cathode surfaces were located into the
electric field that was developed between anode and cathode. For this electrode arrangement, an-
ode-cathode-anode, two possible distances between electrodes, 2.5 and 1.2 cm were investigated.
Figure 3 shows the copper recovery as a function of time for the two inter-electrode distances at a
current density of 1100Am-2. As the distance decreases the curve of copper recovery approaches the
theoretical line corresponded to copper recovery according to the Faraday’s law.

100
Copper recovery, %

80

60
theoretical line
40
2.5cm
20 1.2cm

0
0 30 60 90 120 150 180
time, min

Figure 3: Effect of the anode – cathode distance on copper recovery.

As the inter-electrode distance decreases, the cell voltage drops from 6.17V to 4.08V, as it has been
experimentally confirmed. Therefore, the cell resistance decreases as far as the current density re-
mains constant. Cell resistance is the summation of the anodic, cathodic and bulk solution resis-
tances. Thus, the anodic and cathodic resistances decrease, as long as the composition of the bulk
solution remains constant, and this is the reason that the current efficiency increases as the inter-
electrode distance decreases. Moreover, as the inter-electrode distance decreases the electric field
intensity between the electrodes increases and consequently, the electrostatic force that drives the
charged cupric complex ions to the boundary layer becomes higher improving the copper recovery
from the solution.

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Giannopoulou, Panias, Paspaliaris

3.5 Effect of electrolyte agitation rate

The phenomena at the electrode-solution interface play an important role during metal electrodepo-
sition processes, affecting the current efficiencies and consequently the economic application of
electrolytic method for the effluent treatment. Thus, in order to achieve the operation of the electro-
chemical cell at high current efficiencies, the improvement of mass transfer conditions in the cell
under proper hydrodynamic conditions, is necessary. The electrolyte movement or the electrodes
movement are usually employed in achieving high mass transfer conditions in a simple electrolytic
cell, which is operating in batch mode.
In the present work the electrolyte agitation by a magnetic stirrer was selected to produce a well-
defined diffusion layer, sufficiently thin to give a high rate of mass transfer and hence a maximum
value for the efficiency of electrodeposition. The agitation rates in the range of 60min-1 to 500min-1
were study, at a current density of 1100Am-2. The effect of the stirring rate on copper recovery and
on the quality of copper deposition was investigated. The results are shown in Figure 4.

100

80
Copper recovery, %

60

40
theoretical line 514 min-1
20 370 min-1 255 min-1
123 min-1 60 min-1
0
0 30 60 90 120
time, min

Figure 4: The effect of stirring rate on copper recovery at a current density 1100Am-2
As it is seen in Fig.4, the copper recovery rate is independent of stirring rate in the range 60 –
255min-1 and approaches the Faraday’s law theoretical line at the initials stages of electrolysis. Stir-
ring rates higher than 255min-1 affect negatively the copper recovery rates, especially at the initial
stages of electrolysis. In that case, the curves of copper recovery versus time appear concave curva-
ture, which is typical of kinetic inhibitions and the current efficiencies decrease substantially al-
though the current density remains constant.
Therefore, the stirring rate is an essential parameter of the electrolytic cell regarding the energy
consumption, as it determinates the rate at which reactants arrive at the electrode surface from the
bulk of the electrolyte and the rate at which the cathodic reactions occur. At low stirring rates the
cupric complex ions approach to the electrode surface hardly, due to the thickness of the boundary
layer, while at high stirring rates the complex ions have to overcome the kinetic inhibitions created

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 Copper recovery from spent ammoniacal etching solutions

from the turbulent flow of the electrolyte and remain to the electrode surface the appropriate time
for their reduction and deposition [14].
For the electrolytic cell used in the present work, stirring rates in the range 123 – 255 min-1 seem to
create the proper hydrodynamic conditions for the optimum rate of mass transfer and hence for the
maximum efficiencies on copper electrowinning from the investigated solutions. Moreover, uni-
form and smooth copper depositions were obtained at stirring rates in the range 123 – 255 min-1,
while granulated depositions were observed for the higher agitation rates and jelly type loose depo-
sitions for the lower agitation rates.

3.6 Effect of current density

Since the optimum inter-electrode distance and the optimum electrolyte agitation rate were deter-
mined for the electrolytic cell, experiments were carried out at different currents in order to verify
the optimum current density for the electrowinning of copper from the ammoniacal etching effluent,
in respect to the energy consumption. Five current intensities were investigated, 15A, 12A, 10A,
7.5A and 5A corresponding to current densities of 1666 Am-2, 1388 Am-2, 1100 Am-2, 833 Am-2
and 555 Am-2. The inter-electrode distance was 1.2 cm and the electrolyte agitation rate was kept
constant at 123min-1 in all the experiments. The results are shown in Figure 5, where the copper
recovery is plotted as a function of quantity of electricity and current density. As the current density
increases the recovery tends to follow the Faraday’s law theoretical line during the initial stages of
electrolysis. Especially the curves corresponding to a current density higher than 1100 Am-2 seem
to follow the theoretical line until a copper recovery of about 50%. After this period, the rates of
copper deposition under the lower applied current densities become higher to the ones at 1666
to1100 Am-2. The obtained current efficiencies after the initial stages of electrolysis are better for
the lower applied current densities, as it is shown in Figure 6.

100

80
Copper recovery, %

60

40
theor.line 1100 A/m2
20 1666 A/m2 833 A/m2
1388 A/m2 555 A/m2
0
0 5 10 15 20
Q, Ah

Figure 5: Effect of current density on copper recovery at stirring rate 123min-1

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Giannopoulou, Panias, Paspaliaris

It is evident in Fig. 6 that the copper deposition takes place initially with higher efficiencies under
the greater current densities. The current efficiency under lower current densities is gradually im-
proved and at copper concentrations lower than 15g/l becomes higher than the respective ones of
1666 to 1100 A/m2 current densities. Finally, the obtained current efficiency under the lower stu-
died current density (555 A/m2) is the best one.
The quality of copper deposition was better at the lower applied current density. As the current den-
sity was decreased, the copper deposition became uniform, compact and smooth. The structure of
metal deposition mainly depends: (i) on current density during electrolysis, (ii) on the rate of elec-
trons transfer on the cathode surface to form an adatom and (iii) on the rate of diffusion of the ada-
tom into the crystal lattice after sliding along the cathode surface [17]. At low current densities sur-
face diffusion is faster than electron transfer so that, the deposition is more ordered (crystalline
type), while the deposition is more disordered and heterogeneous (non-crystalline type) at higher
current density, due to the faster electron transfer [18]. Under conditions in which bubble forma-
tion took place visibly, as a result of the site reaction of hydrogen evolution, the quality of copper
deposition was granulated, non-uniform, and with no coherence at the cathode surface.

100

80
Current Efficiency, %

60

40

20 1100 A/m2 833 A/m2 555 A/m2

0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Copper concentration, g/l

Figure 6: Current efficiency as a function of copper concentration for different current densities.
To obtain an economically acceptable current efficiency and a high copper recovery at the electro-
lysis of spent ammoniacal etching solutions, the present results shown that the electrolytic process
has to be performed favourably under gradually decreasing current densities.

4. Conclusions
The electrolytic recovery of copper from the spent ammoniacal etching solutions was studied. The
investigated effluent was an alkaline solution with a pH ranged from 8.5 to 9.5 that contained 30.8
g/l copper, 2.09 mol/l NH3 and 38.5 g/l chloride. The high chloride concentration of this effluent

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 Copper recovery from spent ammoniacal etching solutions

caused serious corrosion problems on the 316 SS anodes of the electrolytic cell and for that reason a
solution pre-treatment with a strong basic anionic exchange resin in order to reduce the chloride
concentration from 38.5g/l to less than 8g/l, was necessary. The latter value of chloride concentrati-
on was determined experimentally as the maximum one below it the corrosion problems on 316 SS
anodes were inhibited.
The electrolytic process was proved more efficient when the arrangement of three electrodes – two
anodes, one cathode – at an inter-electrode distance of 1.2cm was applied. Under those conditions
high copper electrorecovery rates and better quality of copper deposition were obtained.
Electrolyte agitation was proved as a crucial parameter for the efficiency of copper recovery. Elect-
rolyte agitation rates in a range of 255 to 123min-1 created the proper conditions for copper recove-
ry rates and produced uniform, smooth and compact copper depositions.
A current efficiency greater than 90% was achieved under a current density higher than 1100Am-1,
during the initial stages of electrolyses. After that period, where the 50% of the initial copper
amount in the solution was recovered, the current efficiency was higher for the lower applied cur-
rent densities. Therefore, in order to optimise current efficiency the electrolytic process has to be
performed under gradually decreasing current densities. The quality of copper depositions was
strongly depended on current density, and under the lower studied current densities was more uni-
form, fine and compact than under the higher ones at the same agitation rate.
The total recovery of copper in all the experiments was in the range of 99.8 – 99.9%, and therefore
a final Cu(II) ion concentration in the effluent lower than 1g/l was achieved, which is required from
the Greek and the European legislation for safe and acceptable effluent discharge into the environ-
ment.

5. References
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[6] N. Sapari, A. Idris and N. H. Ab Hamid (1996): Total removal of heavy metals from mixed
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[16] J. C. Bailar & al. (1989): CHEMISTRY, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., A25-A28.
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12 Proceedings of EMC 2003