Modern technologies designed to treat wastewater containing phosphorus compounds are based on the processes of adsorption and precipitation. In addition, more environmentally friendly and cheaper materials are being sought to ensure greater conformity with overarching assumptions of green chemistry and sustainable development. Against that background, this paper offers a review and analysis of available information on the considered reactive materials that have the capacity to remove phosphorus from wastewater. These materials are categorised as natural (with a sub-division in line with the dominant sorption groups of Al/Fe or Ca/Mg), waste, or man-made. Notably, most studies on sorbents have been carried out in laboratory systems via experimentation under static conditions. Among the natural materials, opoka has the highest sorption capacity of 181.20 g P/kg, while red mud (in the waste material category) is most efficient at binding phosphorus with a level of 345.02 g P/kg. Finally, among the group of commercial materials, Rockfos® has the highest sorption capacity of 256.40 g P/kg. In addition, this paper recognises the effect of composition, pH, and physical properties on a reactive material’s capacity to absorb phosphorus, as well as the possibility for further potential use in the production of fertilisers.
The paper presents physicochemical studies of nine reactive materials for removing phosphorus from wastewater and water. The materials under analysis are raw forms of marl and travertine along with their thermally treated forms at temperatures of 500 °C, 650 °C, 700 °C (travertine), 700 °C, 900 °C, 1000 °C (marl) and the commercial material Polonite ® . The scope of the research included morphological analysis and elemental composition, specific surface area, pore volume and diameter, losses on ignition and the amount of elements leached from materials. The results of the research allowed assessing the impact of physicochemical properties and thermal modification on the efficiency of phosphorus binding by these materials. All the tested sorbents show the highest calcium content among the elements with the ability to bind phosphorus. The size of the specific surface does not determine the efficiency of phosphorus retention by the tested materials; therefore it is advisable to study the mechanism of its binding. The thermal modification process, along with the increase in the treatment temperature, improves the regularity of marl and travertine structures, which also manifests itself in increasing the efficiency of phosphorus removal.
Based on the assumptions of the circular economy model and sustainable development, we are currently looking for natural and ecological materials in terms of wastewater treatment of pollutants. This article presents the research of three mineral materials – lava rock (LR), lightweight sintered aggregate (LSA) and lightweight clay aggregates (LCA) used as filling of filtration columns for the treatment of real wastewater. The filtration process was carried out under various hydraulic loads in two columns, one of which was additionally supported by the aeration process. The post-treated sewage was characterized by the following parameters: COD (chemical oxygen demand), TOC (total organic carbon), phosphate phosphorus (P-PO4), total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP). Among the hydraulic loads applied, the most optimal loads were OhI = 0.25 m3/(m2·h). Certyd turned out to be the most effective with supporting filtration with the aeration process in removing organic compounds (reduction of 65.1% COD and 38.2% TOC at OhI). Lava rock seems to be a promising material reactive in terms of removal of biogenic compounds such as nitrogen (efficiency 23.8% at OhI) and phosphorus (64.2% reduction of TP at OhI) and organic compounds (21.4% reduction of TOC at OhI in conditions without aeration). LCA shows the best efficiency in sorption of phosphorus compounds (41.6% reduction of TP at OhI) and organic compounds (21.4% TOC reduction at OhI under non-aerated conditions).
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