Extraction of copper and zinc by liquid-membrane-gel

Since water is always inseparable from human activity. The Industrial Revolution of the 19th century, by valuing water vapor, has allowed the development of production capacity: Water has become an indispensable material to run the factories. Alongside this, the processes contributing to the degradation of water quality and consequently to the disruption of the entire ecosystem are increasing and intensifying. The discharge of waste water loaded with pollutants in the receiving environment without any treatment is a growing cause for concern given the adverse effects they can cause environmental and health effects. The industry of surface treatment which consists of depositing a coating on various objects by electrolytic or chemical way to give them a specific appearance and characteristics, generates waste complex because they contain pollutants such as diversified as manufacturing processes used, and may interact with separate collection is not always feasible [1]. The main liquid waste from the bath surface treatment (pickling baths, degreasing, and rinsing treatment), are basic or acid. They contain metal surface treatment (copper, nickel, chromium, cadmium, zinc ...). Some pollutants such as metals may be toxic in an immediate way to any living being. Thus the rejection of concentrated bath may be the cause of accidental pollution. This often leads to mortality of species specific lethal dose is reached [2, 3]. The surface treatment is an area where the use of new technologies such as vacuum deposition may allow a significant reduction of waste streams including sludge. There are various valuation techniques such as the loss of ion exchange, cementation, the precipitation technique, reverse osmosis, ultra filtration, microfiltration [4].... They have disadvantages either to produce large volumes of waste, either to be an expensive method. Another example is the liquid-liquid extraction, the latter sometimes present problems of emulsions [5] that complicate phase separation and make it impossible or sometimes more often with loss of extractants, due to solubilization and driving the aqueous phase, as well as the use of a large amount of solvent. To address this possibility, various researchers have proposed to absorb the organic phase extractant to solid supports such as polymers [6], they are gels (membranes) swelled by specific hydrophobic organic extractants. The performance of this process in terms of selectivity and extraction efficiency, were very interesting. The membranes-gels are resulting from the fixation of organic extraction solvent on solid supports. The polystyrene bead form [6] or polymers of styrene-divinylbenzene, polyurethane foams, and silicone rubber were the first to be used. As a result, the organic phase which was mobile in the solvent extraction system is replaced by an immobilized phase in a solid matrix. The advantages of this process are outlined as follows: Ease of implementation, low energy demand, possible restitution of the extracted specie in a new phase and a restricted volume of the organic phase. Our highest priority is the treatment of wastewater containing diluted metallic elements harmful to the environment and / or high value with low energy consumption. We are particularly interested to copper from rinse baths workshops for surface treatment.