Efficiency evaluation of treatment methods adopted for safe disposal of rinse water generated from electrochemical processes

Electrochemical/chemical processes play a crucial role in the fabrication of accelerator and laser components to meet specific functional requirements. These processes generate a lot of wastewater during rinsing having metallic and non-metallic ions with wide spectrum of toxicity. Wastewater generated during electrochemical processes such as electropolishing of stainless steel, electroplating of copper, nickel and anodic oxidation of aluminium is collected in two storage tanks of capacity 10m(3) each. Method of treatment consists of a pre-treatment section, a plant which is combination of clarifier-platter, slaked lime dosing system and storage tank. The pre-treated water is then passed through a reverse osmosis (RO) system of capacity 3m(3) per hour to remove the ions that were not removed in the pre-treatment section. By combining these two methods we were able to remove the metallic and non-metallic impurities up to 99% from the electrochemical rinse waste making it suitable for safe disposal or reuse. In this paper, we describe about our studies in determining the efficiency of these treatment methods (pre-treatment and RO) adopted. We also discuss about the reuse of treated water for electroplating activities by integrating an ion-exchange plant with the existing treatment system.