Abstract
Eutrophication is an environmental issue which occurs when the environment becomes enriched with nutrients. Phosphorus (P) is a key nutrient limiting the phytoplankton and algal growth in many aquatic environments. Therefore, P removal could be a promising technique to control the eutrophication. Herein, a natural zeolite (NZ) was modified by two practical techniques, including zirconium (ZrMZ) and magnesium-ammonium modification (MNZ), and employed for phosphate removal. Batch, equilibrium, and column experiments were conducted to determine various adsorption parameters. Equilibrium data were fitted to two different isotherms and Freundlich isotherm provided the best fit which confirms multi-layer adsorption of phosphate ions on the adsorbents. The kinetic experiments demonstrated that the adsorption process is fast with more than 80% of phosphate adsorbed in the first 4 h, and a subsequent equilibrium was established after 16 h. The kinetic data were well described by pseudo-second-order model, suggesting that chemisorption is the mechanism of sorption. Intraparticle diffusion showed a rate-limiting step for phosphate adsorption on all the adsorbents, especially MNZ and ZrMZ. The fixed-bed column study showed that the phosphate concentration in the outlet (C) of ZrMZ column did not reach the initial concentration (C0) after passing 250 bed volume (BV), while it reached C0 after 100 BV when the MNZ was employed. Given the considerable improvement were seen, the results of this study suggest that surface of zeolite can be modified with zirconium (and in a less extent magnesium-ammonium) to enhance adsorption of phosphate from many eutrophic lakes.
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Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the Northern Analytical Lab Services (NALS) team at the University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC) for their support, with a very special thanks to Erwin Rehl and Ann Doung for their generous help during the course of this project.
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Financial support was provided by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) through Engage Grant (NSERC EGP 543353–19).
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First author, Mostafa Marzi: the main person in this research who have done the experiments and writing of the main manuscript. This manuscript is a part of his PhD thesis.
Second author, Hossein Kazemian: Professor Kazemian is one of the main supervisors of this and provided the proper funding to doing the project.
Third author, Charles Bradshaw: Mr. Bradshaw helped us with setting up the experiments and doing the instrumental analysis.
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Marzi, M., Kazemian, H. & Bradshaw, C. Study on phosphate removal from aqueous solutions using magnesium-ammonium- and zirconium-modified zeolites: equilibrium, kinetic, and fixed-bed column study. Environ Monit Assess 195, 826 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-023-11423-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-023-11423-2