Hydrolysis

Hydrolysis treatment involves a chemical reaction in which water causes those hazardous waste constituents which are unstable in water to break down. These includes some pesticides and organo-phosphorus compounds and substances such as phosphorus halides, thionyl chloride, silicon tetrachloride, etc which will react violently with water. The process principle of this method is allowing the substances react with the water, breaking down to form simpler residues. The waste to be hydrolyzed is added to the water in small increments, or by slow continuous addition. Efficient mixing in a suitably sized reaction vessel is important. If the reaction is particularly vigorous, fume extraction and treatment may be necessary which will be a significant additional cost. However, the residues of hydrolysis may likely retain some hazardous properties and require further treatment. For example, hydrolysis of water-reactive halides will produce acidic wastes which require subsequent neutralisation, and possibly separation/filtration. Besides, hydrolysis of pesticides will produce a waste water containing fragments which might retain some activities and/or hazardous characteristics. The following are the examples of those substances are halides, carbide, hydride, alkoxide, and active metal:

Ion exchange:

Ion exchange is a reversible process in which dissolved inorganic species of a solution may, when in contact with a suitable resin, exchange with other ionic species on the resin. This process is particularly suitable for material recovery. However, its applications in waste disposal are limited for consistent and predicable waste water streams containing low concentrations of certain metals. Other competing processes such as precipitation, flocculation and sedimentation are widely applicable to mixed waste streams containing suspended solids and spectrums of organic and inorganic species and as well as being more economical. The process principle of this method mainly involves exchange of ionic constituents of a waste stream with ionic species on the resin and causes exchanged species to concentrate on the resin until the capacity for exchange is exhausted. A treatment process will regenerate the resin by releasing the exchanged material and concentrating it into a much reduced volume. Resins can be made to exchange anionic or cationic species. It is also possible for resins to remove specific substances such as a single metal from mixed streams. However, this will depend on the circumstances of each situation. Besides, ion exchange resins have also been used to remove radionuclides from radioactive wastes.

The following is one of examples which using anion exchanges for the removal of anionic nickel cyanide complex and chromate ions from waste solutions:

The weakness point of this method is possibility of resin being poisoned. Resins usually can be poisoned by unexpected constituents or rapidly exhausted by unexpectedly high loadings. Thus, the efficiency of removal is reduced as concentrations get lower. Tests must be carried out to verify suitability for final discharge/disposal.