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Acid waste streams and/or phosphate contamination in chrome baths

1999

I have been assigned a group design project about chrome plating. One part of the project is trying to recycle a waste stream of acid(phosphoric and sulfuric) which is used to clean metal parts. The other part is to try to separate the phosphates from the first bath, which end up in the chrome plating bath, from chromates. I am not allowed to ask for complete solutions, but if anyone has tips about literature on acid wastewater streams or techniques for recycling acid streams, or how to separate chromates from phosphates I would be grateful. I am a senior in chemical engineering, so I can handle technical literature!

Thanks!

Jenny Hasselstrom
student - (Sweden but for the moment) Iowa, USA

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Get the Metal Finishing Guide Book from metal finishing magazine it is an excellent source of general technical information on wastewater treatment. Contact some chemical companies that sell to the metal plating industry and they will help you with additional current information. Salesman are an excellent source of information because they each sell different systems representing competing (differing ) theories concerning their subject.

Good Luck,

Michael Broussard
plating shop - Albuquerque, New Mexico
2003