Application of carbon foam for heavy metal removal from industrial plating wastewater and toxicity evaluation of the adsorbent

• Carbon foam can be applied to heavy metal removal from industrial plating wastewater.
• Carbon foam has a high sorption capacity compare than commercial materials.
• Cytotoxicity of carbon foam on human cells was sufficiently low to use.
• Carbon foam has a high sorption capacity for Cr in pilot plat system.
• Oxidation pretreatment can enhance heavy metal removal from plating wastewater.

Electroplating wastewater contains various types of toxic substances, such as heavy metals, solvents, and cleaning agents. Carbon foam was used as an adsorbent for the removal of heavy metals from real industrial plating wastewater. Its sorption capacity was compared with those of a commercial ion-exchange resin (BC258) and a heavy metal adsorbent (CupriSorb™) in a batch system. The experimental carbon foam has a considerably higher sorption capacity for Cr and Cu than commercial adsorbents for acid/alkali wastewater and cyanide wastewater. Additionally, cytotoxicity test showed that the newly developed adsorbent has low cytotoxic effects on three kinds of human cells. In a pilot plant, the carbon foam had higher sorption capacity for Cr (73.64 g kg−1) than for Cu (14.86 g kg−1) and Ni (7.74 g kg−1) during 350 h of operation time. Oxidation pretreatments using UV/hydrogen peroxide enhance heavy metal removal from plating wastewater containing cyanide compounds.