THEMATIC ISSUE Removal of Cu 2+ from aqueous solution using proton exchange membrane by Donnan dialysis process Dongjin Wan • Shuhu Xiao • Xiaoyu Cui • Quanhua Zhang • Yonghui Song Received: 8 October 2014 / Accepted: 20 February 2015 / Published online: 4 March 2015 Ó Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2015 Abstract In the context of increasing heavy metal pol- lution (e.g., Cu 2? , Cd 2? , Pb 2? and Zn 2? ) in Liao River Basin of China in recent years due to metallurgical refin- ery, this study investigated the removal of Cu 2? from aqueous solution by Donnan dialysis process. Na ? was selected as the counterion, while GEFC-107 proton ex- change membrane (GEFC Co., China) was used as the ion exchange membrane. Transport of Cu 2? from feed phase to receiver phase was enhanced by increasing Na þ R  Cu 2þ F ratio (subscripts R and F denote as receiver and feed phases, respectively). For the initial Cu 2? concentration of 200 mg L -1 and Na þ R  Cu 2þ F ratio of 20:1, a removal effi- ciency of 95.31 % was achieved for 190 min dialysis. The adsorption percentage by the proton exchange membrane increased from 12.12 to 85.15 % when the initial Cu 2? concentration decreased from 200 to 20 mg L -1 . The ki- netics data for Cu 2? removal was best interpreted by the first-order model. The removal efficiency decreased from 89.09 to 72.43 % when the proton exchange membrane was reutilized three times without membrane washing us- ing acid. Higher initial pH of receiver phase or lower initial pH of feed phase facilitated the Cu 2? transport from feed to receiver phase. The feasibility of Donnan dialysis col- laborated with precipitation to remove Cu 2? was found to be not suitable for Cu 2? removal with high concentration, i.e., initial concentration 200 mg L -1 , since only a removal efficiency of Cu 2? of 54.08 % was achieved. Keywords Cu 2? removal Á Donnan dialysis Á Kinetics Á Membrane Á Adsorption Introduction Efficient separation and recovery of heavy metal ions such as cadmium, mercury, lead and copper from industrial wastewater have gained a significant research attention because of the environmental concerns associated with heavy metal toxicity and the increased awareness of water recycling (Rajangam et al. 2011; Fonseca et al. 2013). At least 20 metals are classified as toxic and half of these pose risk to human health. Copper (Cu 2? ) is one such heavy metal ion, the intake of which above the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended level of 1.0 mg L -1 in drinking water can cause severe health problems (WHO 2004; Zhou et al. 2009; Li et al. 2014). Cu 2? is a common contaminant in Liao River Basin of China and has been gradually increasing mainly due to the metallurgical re- finery industry in the area. Several techniques such as liquid–liquid extraction (Saji et al. 1999), precipitation, adsorption (Zhou et al. 2009) and membrane processes (Song et al. 2007; Mohsen-Nia et al. 2007; Molinari et al. 2006) have been investigated for the treatment of Cu 2? -containing waste water. Among the methods, membrane processes such as reverse osmosis or electrodialysis have been popular. However, high pressure D. Wan Á S. Xiao (&) Á X. Cui Á Y. Song (&) State Key Laboratory of Environmental Criteria and Risk Assessment, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing 100012, China e-mail: xiaoshuhu@126.com Y. Song e-mail: songyh@craes.org.cn D. Wan e-mail: dongjinwan@yeah.net D. Wan Á Q. Zhang School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Henan University of Technology, Zhengzhou, Henan 450001, China 123 Environ Earth Sci (2015) 73:4923–4929 DOI 10.1007/s12665-015-4214-0