Reactive Materials in the Removal of Phosphorus Compounds from Wastewater—A Review

Abstract

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.

New Materials and Technologies for Wastewater Treatment

“…Yet, in order to optimize this adsorption/precipitation process for the phosphorus removal, alternative adsorbents may be considered. This is the main objective of the manuscript by Gubernat et al, in which the adsorption properties (mostly adsorption capacity) of 25 types of adsorbents were reviewed, from raw geosorbent as bentonites, to waste adsorbent [ 3 ]. The main findings of their study were that for natural adsorbents, the higher adsorption capacities were observed for carbonate derived sorbents (i.e., marble, opoka) and that a calcination strongly increased the adsorption capacity through calcium carbonate decomposition.…”

“…This Special Issue (SI) contains the successful submissions [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 ] of Materials on the subject area of “New Materials and Technologies for Wastewater Treatment”. The development of new materials that are able to enhance the efficiency of industrial wastewater treatment processes, as well as the modulation of these materials’ properties to improve the recovery of pollutants, has experienced steady progress.…”

Treatment of Hypolimnion Water on Mineral Aggregates as the Second Step of the Hypolimnetic Withdrawal Method Used for Lake Restoration

“…Another urgent point is P recycling, as it could reduce the pressure on nonrenewable P resources. These two problems have received more and more attention, and the need to develop reuse and/or recycling strategies has been recognized [25,[70][71][72][73]. Reuse and/or recycling is especially desirable in the case of materials whose production involves high-energy inputs, such as LECA [73].…”

Characteristics of the Properties of Absodan Plus Sorbent and Its Ability to Remove Phosphates and Chromates from Aqueous Solutions

“…The common feature is that the adsorption of chromates and phosphates is intensified under acidic conditions due to electrostatic attraction, ion exchange, and complexation with protonated surfaces [ 12 ]. Mineral materials such as indigenous volcanic rock [ 29 ], aluminosilicate rock containing feldspar, montmorillonite, and illite [ 30 ], diatomite, and zeolite [ 31 ], dolomite and opoka [ 32 ], zeolitic tuff [ 33 ] are also used to remove chromates and phosphates.…”