ABSTRACT
Electroplating industries are the major contributors of metals to municipal sewers. 1 Pretreatment of electroplating wastewaters is essential to reduce their impact on wastewater treatment plants. Metals are removed from electroplating wastewaters using physicochemical processes such as chemical precipitation, ion exchange, reverse osmosis, evaporation, electrodialysis and electrolytic recovery. 2 These technologies are effective in removing metals, but require chemical additions (chemical precipitation and ion exchange) or energy inputs (reverse osmosis, electrodialysis and electrolytic recovery) in excess of that required for pumping.
