Preliminary Study on Recovery of Nickel

This research aims to study the feasibility of nickel recovery from spent electroplating solution via hydrometallurgy and electrochemical treatment. The spent nickel-plating solution obtained as an industrial waste was found to contain nickel of 89.4 g/l, which was still in high quantity sufficient for prospective recovery. In this research, precipitation of nickel from the spent electroplating solution was first carried out to separate other unwanted impurities. The remained nickel precipitate was then leached by using 1 M or 2 M H2SO4 for 24 h. at a solid/liquid ratio of 100 g/l. The leached solution was then adjusted to obtain pH 2 prior to electrowinning. It was found that the maximum weight of nickel cathode is 5.07 g or at 90.7% recovery of 97.46% purity can be achieved in a condition using 1 M H2SO4 and electrical potential 3.7 V.