Research Information System
MINING METALLURGY & EXPLORATION, vol.43, no.2, pp.1919-1934, 2026 (SCI-Expanded, Scopus)
This study investigates the recovery of copper powder from copper-containing wastewater originating from various metallurgical processes, such as etching solutions and wastewater from the galvanotechnique industry, using a laboratory-scale rotating cylinder electrode (RCE) system. Experiments conducted in two RCE configurations (Cell-20 and Cell-60) demonstrated that copper powder can be efficiently recovered across a wide Cu & sup2;(+) concentration range (0.5-25 gL(-)& sup1;), achieving high current efficiencies (90-97%) and low specific energy consumption (1.57-1.88 kWh kg(-)& sup1;), with negligible hydrogen evolution. Systematic variation of current density, cathode rotation speed, and electrolyte concentration confirmed the strong performance of the RCE system even under highly dilute conditions. Morphological analysis revealed that the current density, rotation speed, and the initial and evolving Cu & sup2;(+) concentration governed the resulting particle structures. Under different electrolysis regimes, these parameters led to the formation of pine-like dendrites, branched dendrites composed of corncob-like elements, cauliflower-type structures, and spherical Cu agglomerates.