Electrodialysis for the Recovery of Hexavalent Chromium Solutions

Abstract

The widespread use of chromium and its compounds in modern industry results in the discharge of great quantities of this element into the environment. Conventional waste treatment technologies are usually based on the transfer of the contamination to another waste product with the so called “end of pipe technologies”. The storage of hazardous solid waste in dump sites presents a serious health and safety risk to the community, and other disposal methods are required. It seems prudent to consider waste as a resource that can be detoxified and converted to usable products. This chapter provides a short review of the hexavalent chromium electroplating process, showing the characteristics of the process and the contaminants generated by it. It also shows the types of treatment that are most commonly used by industries and the new treatment technologies that are considered to be cleaner, such as electrodialysis.