Removal and separation of lead, copper and cadmium from water solutions using resin adsorption

Heavy metals including lead, copper, and cadmium existing in various industrial effluents create severe environmental impacts around the world. There are various technologies applied for the treatment of wastewaters bearing toxic metals such as ultrafiltration, solvent extraction, precipitation, reverse osmosis, and resin adsorption via ion exchange or chelating bonding. Removal and separation of heavy metals have been the subject of many studies, but few of them systematically investigated various resins at the same time and the acting mechanism of functional group types in details. The current research bridged this gap with the following novel works : (1) experimental investigation and molecular simulation of uptake of cadmium ions from aqueous solution using resins with sulphonic /phosphonic functional groups; (2) removal/ recovery of single copper and lead ions from water system with comprehensive studies of the influences of pH, adsorption time, resin dosage, concentrations, as well as adsorption kinetics, thermodynamics and resin elution process; (3) experimental investigation of the separation of lead and copper ions from acidic binary solution, systematic studies on various operational conditions at different measurement ranges, as well as kinetics, isotherms, thermodynamics and elution studies. The results from the research demonstrated the potency for removal of lead, copper, and cadmium as well as lead-copper separation from wastewaters by the use of resin adsorption via ion exchange or chelating bonding. More resin structure-performance studies will be conducted in the future for efficient metal removal/recovery from wastewaters, secondary resources, or even ocean waters.