Fujitsu Installs Wastewater Treatment System to Recover Copper

Fujitsu Ltd. announced that it has installed and started operation of a wastewater treatment system that efficiently recovers copper. The system can recover copper in high concentrations (90 percent or more) using 75-percent fewer chemicals than the previous system.

Typically, copper-containing wastewater is treated in a chemical coagulation and sedimentation process that generates large volumes of sludge that contains impurities. The new system, on the other hand, uses a functional magnetic powder when filtering, thus generating a small amount of high-copper-content sludge without any chemicals other than a neutralizing agent. The functional powder is separated easily with magnets after filtering and then reused within the system, contributing to a 40-percent reduction in operational costs compared to the conventional method, if revenue from selling the copper-laden sludge is factored in. Furthermore, the new system requires shorter processing time and less facility space.

Fujitsu plans to work on processing the sludge to produce high-value-added oxidized copper starting October 2012. It is also considering adapting the system to the recovery of valuables other than copper.