Evaluation of a water cleaning method by magnetic separation using calcined plating sludge

In this research, a method for reusing the plating sludge is studied. The sludge removed from the waste water of the surface finishing industry is usually landfilled. However, due to the problems such as the lack of landfill sites and high wasting costs, it is required to reduce the amount of the waste plating sludge with harmless methods. It has become apparent that soft magnetic material called ferrite can be produced from plating sludge by adjusting its composition and heating. In this experiment, we tried to produce a composite material which was made by combining the activated carbon powder and the ferrite made from plating sludge using PET as binder, and evaluated the ability for cleaning water containing methylene blue which was emulated contaminated water. After mixing the composite material and water, and settling for 72 hours, they are separated with a magnet and the residual concentration of methylene blue was measured. It was found that the heating temperature and time for combining the activated carbon and the ferrite are important for improving the performance of cleaning water.