Goal: Wastewater Treatment, Metal Recovery and Sludge Minimization
Metal recovery and sludge minimization combined with guaranteed effluent compliance entails additional cost for equipment and operation. Kurion offers a variety of Waste Treatment technologies to accomplish this goal.
Waste Treatment of copper solution is achieved by recirculating through the electrowinning cell, depositing copper on the cathodes. Kurion has developed a plate out cell that is suitable for treating a variety of spent solutions. Typically, more than 90 percent of the metal is recovered from each individual bath. separate collection and direct plate out of copper from these solutions. 
Depending on the flow rate and content of non-EDTA copper in the PCB shop's rinsewater, the IX/ER System for recovery of copper from rinses and low copper concentrates is justified. In the IX/ER, copper containing solution passes through two ion exchange columns in series. These columns contain resin which captures the copper, allowing water to be discharged after to the final Neutralization System. When the resin in the first column is saturated with copper, that column is taken off-line and regenerated with acid. This copper-rich acid is sent to a Plate Out Cell System for recovery of the metal. The acid can reused for the next regeneration step.
For Waste Treatment of electroless nickel, Kurion Has developed an Electroless nickel IX Wastewater Treatment Plant. This ion exchange process employs a proprietary resin to capture employs a proprietary resin to capture the nickel in order
| | to comply with discharge limits below 0.5 ppm. When the resin is saturated, it is regenerated, and the nickel is batch treated with nickel dumps in a custom engineered batch treatment system. If the rinses feeding the Wastewater Treatment Plant have been segregated to send copper rinses to the IX/ER and the Electroless nickel to a NIX system, the flow of lead bearing rinses will normally be very low and can be directed to an end-of-pipe system. A cost effective option for treating lead bearing rinses is the Lead Resin System. The rinses are passed through a low cost resin which preferentially absorbs lead and allows the water to be discharged in compliance with lead limits, after the final Neutralization System. Disposal of the low cost resin, rather than regeneration, is often the most economical Wastewater Treatment alternative.
The combination of the Copper IX/ER System, Electroless Nickel IX System and Lead Resin System will treat the PCB shop's metal bearing rinsewaters
and is equivalent to an end-of-pipe system. The typical effluent from these ion exchange systems will meet the usual discharge limits of 0.5 ppm copper and nickel and 0.2 ppm lead.
Goal: Water Recycling
With optimised pre rinsing and dragout control, Water Recycling of low TDS rinses through a Rinsewater Maintenance System becomes a viable option with low payback periods. The RMS uses cation and anion resins to remove TDS directly from process rinses.
Kurion custom engineers RMS Water Recycling system to meet the PCB shop's requirement for water quality and recycle rate. Kurion designs recycle systems based on treatability testing, mass balance calculations and on-site pilot plant studies to ensure the water quality is suitable.
Special Processes
One of the most difficult PCB shop wastes to treat is that containing resist developers and stripping solutions. | | Kurion has developed the TREAT-RESIST System which removes both the resist polymer and metals using proprietary chemical reagents and filtration. The effluent from this system can be sent directly to the final Neutralization System and discharged. The TREAT-RESIST System can be operated on a batch or continuous flow basis. The solids residue is easily dewatered in a standard filter press.
RMS Rinsewater Maintenance System
RMS uses cation and anion resin with a proprietary regeneration process to remove dissolved ionic contaminants and maintain a continuous loop of high quality water for efficient rinsing.
Ion Exchange and Electrolytic Recovery System
IX/ER is a copper recovery system for use on rinsewaters generated from printed circuit board manufacturing operations.
Cyclone Clarifiers
The settling cyclone uses tangential feed to produce centrifugal force to reduce settling and retention time; this greatly reduces the size and footprint required for the Wastewater Treatment settler.
Plate Out Cell System
Plate Out Cell System recovers copper and other metals from concentrated acid wastes.
Vacuum Evaporation System
VES System reduces waste solution volume and captures and reclaims expensive chemicals. 
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