Cu, As, Sb and Bi in copper electrolyte could be efficiently removed by reducing with SO2 followed by evaporative crystallization. As2O3 and CuSO4·5H2O were obtained after crystallized product was treated by dissolution, oxidation, neutralization, sedimentation, filtration and evaporative crystallization. The removal rates of Cu, As, Sb and Bi are 87.1%, 83.9%, 21.0% and 84.7%, respectively, when As (Ⅴ) in copper electrolyte is fully reduced to As (Ⅲ) by SO2, and the H2SO4 in concentrated copper electrolyte is 645 g/L. The removal rate of As is 92.81% when 65 g crystallized product is dissolved in 200 mL water at 30 ℃. The CuSO4·5H2O content is 98.8% when the filtrate is purified under the conditions that n(Fe):n(As) is 1.2, the dosage of H2O2 is 19 times the stoichiometric needed, temperature is 45 ℃, time is 40 min, pH is 3.7, and then is evaporation crystallized.
The influences of temperature, H2SO4 concentration, CuSO4 concentration, reaction time and SO2 flow rate on the reduction of arsenic(V) with SO2 were studied and the deposition behavior of arsenic (III) under the effect of concentration and co-crystallization was investigated in copper electrolyte. The results indicate that reduction rate of arsenic (V) decreases with increasing temperature and H2SO4 concentration, but increases with increasing SO2 flow rate and reaction time, and it can reach 92% under appropriate conditions that reaction temperature is 65 °C, H2SO4 concentration is 203 g/L, CuSO4 concentration is 80 g/L, reaction time is 2 h and SO2 gas flow rate is 200 mL/min. To remove arsenic in the copper electrolyte, arsenic (V) is reduced to trivalence under the appropriate conditions, the copper electrolyte is concentrated till H2SO4 concentration reaches 645 g/L, and then the removal rates of As, Cu, Sb and Bi reach 83.9%, 87.1%, 21.0% and 84.7%. The XRD analysis shows that crystallized product obtained contains As2O3 and CuSO4·5H2O.