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Phosphorus Removal from Municipal Wastewater by Hydrous Ferric Oxide Reactive Filtration and Coupled Chemically Enhanced Secondary Treatment: Part II—Mechanism
Author(s) -
Newcombe R. L.,
Strawn D. G.,
Grant T. M.,
Childers S. E.,
Möller G.
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
water environment research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.356
H-Index - 73
eISSN - 1554-7531
pISSN - 1061-4303
DOI - 10.2175/106143007x220987
Subject(s) - phosphorus , effluent , chemistry , ferric , filtration (mathematics) , wastewater , adsorption , hydrous ferric oxides , sewage treatment , environmental chemistry , nuclear chemistry , environmental engineering , inorganic chemistry , environmental science , sorption , organic chemistry , statistics , mathematics
The removal mechanism of a hydrous ferric oxide (HFO) reactive filtration (RF) process with coupled chemically enhanced secondary treatment (RECYCLE) for phosphorus removal from municipal wastewater (HFO‐RF‐RECYCLE) was examined. A 0.95‐ML/d (0.25‐mgd) demonstration of HFO‐RF‐RECYCLE was performed at a municipal wastewater treatment plant equipped with oxidation ditches and secondary clarifiers. Influent to the plant averaged 6.0 mg/L phosphorus, with a 3‐month tertiary effluent average of 0.011 mg/L phosphorus. In addition to aqueous geochemical modeling, experiments with surface charge, scanning electron microscopy, adsorptive capacity, thermal desorption, and most probable number of iron(III)‐reducing bacteria were performed on samples from the system, to determine the major phosphorus‐removal pathways. Results suggest that, in addition to filtration of particulate phosphorus, the low tertiary effluent total phosphorus result was achieved by adsorption.