Sustainable waste management of copper coating process in welding wire production in both economic and environmental aspect

During past decades electroplating and metallurgy industries have made huge progress, while dealing with the waste resulting from these industries is challenging in both aspects of economic and environment. In this study characteristic of acidic liquid waste resulted from the copper coating process of welding wire in a company analyzed. The main challenge to tackle this issue is high concentration of contaminants like iron which is near 50 g/l in acid waste solution. The second obstacle is dealing with mud resulting from acid neutralization and purifying from contamination in the water treatment plant. The aim of this research was optimizing quality and quantity of waste management in terms of environment and cost. The current process of the company is based on acid neutralization and in-site water treatment, by chemical-physical plant. In this research methods based on resin, membrane technology (Reverse Osmosis, NF membrane), iron removal by precipitation and finally acid recovery suggested in order to eliminate and possibly reduce sludge generation resulting from precipitation process. Moreover, in order to minimize generated waste and obtain 3R of circular economy (reuse, recycle, Recovery) some suggestions prevent electroplating bath exhaustion, reuse or recycle of acid waste solution in the other industries proposed. In terms of current sludge possibility of reuse in the other industries investigated. Finally, the cost of each proposed method suggested.