Preservative treatment of wood extends its service life. The US consumes about 70 million pounds of copper and produces about 7 billion board feet of treated wood annually. Burning and reusing CCA and copper treated wood wastes are disallowed by US EPA due to health and environmental concerns. Millions of pounds of copper and wood are disposed by landfill annually. The objective of this study was to develop a green technology that can remove copper from the treated wood wastes so that copper and wood can be reused. In this study, seven different aqueous solutions were evaluated for copper removal from treated wood sawdust and chips. Citric acid demonstrated the highest efficiency by recovering 100% copper followed by ammonium citrate and ammonium carbonate/bicarbonate solutions. Formation of copper complexes with the ligands such as citrate and ammonium ions attributed to the key chemical mechanisms for efficient copper removal. The changes of extraction solution color progressively from yellowish orange to dark blue corresponded to the changes in the ratio of citrate ions to ammonia in the solutions. Citric acid has been used extensively as a food and cosmetic additive. The safety, high efficiency and low cost of citric acid compared to the chemicals previously reported for treated wood remediation can overcome the obstacles for commercial consideration. The performance demonstrated in the extraction study by the ammonium salts provides a novel extraction system with further cost reduction options. The finding of excellent copper removal using treated wood chips is very significant since it saves a great amount of energy required to produce sawdust. After removal of copper, the chips offer more opportunities than sawdust for reuse in landscaping, pulping, energy production and many other applications. With the development of such a green and novel technology, we can reuse millions of tons of wood and copper to protect the environment, save natural resources and benefit generations to come.

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