Study the removal of copper ions from wastewater using an array of horizontal rough vibrating zinc discs

Abstract

Abstract The removal of copper ions from synthetic wastewater was investigated using cementation on arrays of oscillating smooth and rough (corrugated) zinc discs under different conditions initial copper ions concentration, vibration intensity (frequency, amplitude), spacing between zinc discs, surface roughness (peak to valley height) and temperature. The results showed that the mass transfer coefficient increased significantly with increasing vibration intensity, initial copper ion concentration, disc spacing, degree of surface roughness, and temperature. Rough (corrugated) discs exhibited significantly higher mass transfer rates than smooth discs, emphasizing the critical role of surface roughness in enhancing diffusion-controlled cementation. The effect of temperature was found to fit Arrhenius equation with an activation energy of 2.58 $$\text{k}\text{c}\text{a}\text{l}/\text{m}\text{o}\text{l}\text{e}$$ which confirms the diffusion-controlled nature of the reaction. The cementation rates were expressed in terms of the mass transfer coefficient. Dimensional analysis was performed to correlate the mass transfer data, resulting in two separate correlations for the smooth and corrugated arrays. These correlations provide a reliable basis for the design and scale-up of vibratory cementation reactors from bench to industrial scale. The present data fit the correlations Sh = 0.0134 Re 1.06 Sc 0.33 (S/d c ) 0.46 for the array of smooth zinc discs, Sh = 0.0711 Re 0.96 Sc 0.33 (S/d c ) −0.49 (P/d c ) 0.49 for array of rough zinc discs under the conditions: 3926.54 < Re < 70,115.28, 1397.2 < Sc < 1538.2, 0.14 < S/d c  < 0.36, and 0.014 < P/ d c  < 0.036 for rough discs.