Phosphorus removal from wastewater using a lanthanum oxide-loaded ceramic adsorbent

• Published in: Adsorption : journal of the International Adsorption Society Vol. 22; no. 8; pp. 1091 - 1098
• Main Authors: Zuo, Yan, Fu, Xiaona, Chen, Ying, Cui, Guirong, Liu, Min
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.11.2016; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Adsorbents; Adsorption; Aqueous solutions; Chemistry; Chemistry and Materials Science; Engineering Thermodynamics; Heat and Mass Transfer; Industrial Chemistry/Chemical Engineering; Specific surface; Surface area; Surfaces and Interfaces; Thin Films; Adsorption; Lanthanum oxide-loaded ceramic; Phosphorus wastewater; Removal efficiency
• ISSN: 0929-5607; 1572-8757
• DOI: 10.1007/s10450-016-9831-8

Phosphorus removal is significant to prevent the eutrophication of water bodies. Adsorption is a promising method with many attractive advantages. An adsorbent is essential to the adsorption method. To investigate the absorption efficiency of lanthanum oxide-loaded ceramic granules, this study loaded lanthanum oxide onto ceramic granules in two different approaches and obtained two adsorbents called G1 and G2. The effects of the initial concentration of phosphorus, pH, temperature, and interfering anions on the phosphorus adsorption of G1 and G2 were investigated in laboratory experiments. When pH ranged from 3.0 to 8.0, the two adsorbents achieved the optimum phosphorus removal efficiency. At pH 4.0, the removal efficiencies of G1 and G2 were 98.1 and 99.8 %, respectively. Temperature fluctuation had an insignificant effect on removal efficiency. The effect of the presence of interfering anions on the adsorption efficiency was limited, i.e., <10 %. Comprehensive comparison showed that G1 exhibited better performance than G2. The Brunauer–Emmett–Teller specific surface area and total pore volume expanded after modification by 40 and ×6, respectively. The X-ray fluorescence results showed a 42 % (percentage by mass) lanthanum content in the modified adsorbents, some of which existed in the endoporus, whereas others were loaded onto the surface of the ceramic granules. The results of the Fourier Transform infrared spectrometry noted combinations between ceramic granulars and lanthanum oxide, and G1 adsorbed PO 4 3− from an aqueous solution.