Remediation of chromium-slag leakage with electricity cogeneration via a urea-Cr(VI) cell

Chromium pollution has been historically widespread throughout the world. Most available remediation technologies often require energy consumption. This study is aimed to develop electrochemical remediation for Cr(VI) in chromium-slag leakage with self-generated electricity. Dynamic leaching experiments of chromium-slag samples were conducted to survey the release and leaching behavior of Cr(VI). Based on previous work, a unique urea-Cr(VI) was designed, in which urea was employed as the fuel and Cr(VI) from the leakage of the dichromate slag served as the oxidant. Furthermore, the electrochemical results showed that the removal percent of Cr(VI) was more than 96% after 18 h with the leakage Cr(VI) concentration of 2.69 mM. The open circuit potential (OCP) varied in the range of 1.56 ~ 1.59 V under different initial Cr(VI) leakage concentrations. The approach explores the feasibility of the promising technique without the need of energy input for simultaneous chromium-slag remediation and generation of electricity.