Evaluation of the Use of Fly Ash as a Low Cost Technology for Phosphorus Removal in Wastewater Treatment

Abstract

“Pozzolan” is a slag from the burning of coal in power plants which has the potential to assist as a low-cost adsorbent for wastewater treatment. The excess of Phosphorus (P) in the environment can promote chemical pollution and harm ecosystems, especially water. It is therefore necessary to implement inexpensive techniques and processes for the efficient treatment of water and wastewater. In this context, this study evaluated the use of the pozzolanic fly ash material for P removal from wastewater for the development of low-cost treatment technologies for environmental restoration and remediation of water resources. The treatment systems were developed in batch configuration. The removal tests from a synthetic sample with a known concentration of P reached a maximum of 30% removal in concentration, even varying the pH and performing different treatments of the pozzolanic material. This low removal efficiency of Phosphorus led to a comparative test between different lots of pozzolan in order to verify if the results obtained were characteristic of the material itself or of the lot obtained. Also the P adsorption isotherms were constructed with the two lots achieving adsorption capacities from 0.87 mg g-1 to 74 mg g-1. This difference indicates that the low P removal efficiency in the preliminary tests is due to the characteristics of the substrate of the first lot. Tests on a real effluent using the pozzolan from the second sample lot indicated a 99% efficiency of P removal, with an initial concentration of Phosphorus in the effluent of 5.5 mg L-1.

Potentiality of Magnetic Filtration on Wastewater Treatment with Flyash Media

“…Spherical particles made up most of fly ash which are vitreous and transparent indicating the complete melting of the silicate minerals. These spheres could be of shapes such as hollow, solid or filled with other smaller spheres, amorphous particles or crystals [8]. Magnetic technology is a method for the magnetization of matters by the magnetic field.…”

Wastewater treatment using adsorption process in column for agricultural purposes

“…14 n. 1, e2178 -Taubaté 2018 From this perspective, the column adsorption process can be used because it is determined by a dynamic process that involves liquid flow and mass transference from an ionic exchange. The application of the adsorptive process in a column has been studied in several matrices (Ali, 2010;De Franco et al, 2018;Do Nascimento et al, 2014;Yaumi et al, 2018;Matsubara and Coelho, 2018;Monteiro, 2017). In addition, an adsorptive column allows a more efficient use of the adsorbent, since the dynamic system enables an evaluation of the material saturation in relation to the time, space and length of the adsorption column (Sousa Neto, 2012).…”