Abstract: The berberine pharmaceutical wastewater containing copper was treated by the bipolar-electrochemical process. The effects of electrode distance, current intensity and initial pH on the removal efficiencies of berberine and Cu²⁺ were studied in details. The optimal condition was determined as followed: the electrode distances of 2.0 cm, the current intensity of 4.0 A and initial pH of 0.4. Under the conditions, the concentrations of berberine and Cu²⁺ reduced from 1 700 and 22 000 mg/L to 120 and 55.0 mg/L within 300 min, and the removal efficiencies reached about 93.3% and 99.9%, respectively. According to the weight method, copper recovery rate was calculated as 97.1%. That is, about 21.35 kg of Cu could be recovered from per ton of such wastewater. Thus, it was proved that the bipolar-electrochemical process was an effective method for the treatment of berberine wastewater containing copper.

Key words: electrochemical process, pharmaceutical wastewater, copper-containing wastewater, berberine, copper recovery