Collection of ENEA technology and expertise
Facility for the treatment of special/hazardous waste designed to recover inorganic pollutants, heavy metals and precious metals
Application sectors
Problem to solve
High-temperature thermal treatments of special/hazardous industrial wastes produce fumes that can carry metals present in the treated wastes and cannot be discharged to the atmosphere without appropriate scrubbing treatment with low pH solutions for metal removal. Disposal of the resulting solution at low ions concentration would result in high operational costs. Treatment on ion-exchange resin allows heavy metals or precious metals to be recovered with very high yields, with significant environmental and economic benefits. The precipitation as insoluble salts of the ions present in the resin regeneration solution allows the recovery of the metals of interest.
Description
The plant can operate continuously in a flow range of 20 to 200 l/h. The plant consists of five main sections, the uptake section on ionic resins consists of three 1.5-meter-high glass columns, the precipitation section of an agitated reactor and thermostat. The materials used in the construction of the plant make it possible to process solutions in a wide pH range.
Innovative aspects and advantages
- Pilot plant with features and versatility of a laboratory plant: can operate with high process flow rates and wide variability of operating parameters.
Admissible applications
- Metal recovery and purification of liquid process streams through capture on ion exchange resins.
- Precipitation of metals of interest through reactions to form insoluble compounds.
Research group involved
Revision date
06-05-2026
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