Patent ID: 8709259

Claim:
A method of treating wastewater for the removal of metals from the wastewater, the method comprising steps of: adding the wastewater, dried Basic Oxygen Furnace (BOF) slag, and hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) to a Catalytic Oxidation reactor unit and stirring to create a first catalytic metal slurry, wherein soluble metals in solution are absorbed onto a surface of the BOF slag; transferring the first catalytic metal slurry to a first separation unit and subjecting the first catalytic metal slurry to a first solid-liquid separation process to create (i) a first treated wastewater and (ii) a catalytic metal sludge; transferring the first treated wastewater to a metal precipitation unit; adding a Carbonate to the metal precipitation unit and stirring to create a carbonate metal slurry; and transferring the carbonate metal slurry to a second separation unit and subjecting the carbonate metal slurry to a second solid-liquid separation process to create (i) a second treated wastewater and (ii) a filtered sludge, wherein the second treated wastewater contains less metals than the wastewater and is reusable for an industrial operation.