Preliminary Research on Synergetic Removal of Phosphorus and Nitrogen by Aeration and Adsorption

Zhao, L.; Gong, D.; Li, L.; Lin, L.; Du, Q.; Qiao, Q.; Guo, W.; Tang, X., and Li, Q., 2019. Preliminary research on synergetic removal of phosphorus and nitrogen by aeration and adsorption. In: Guido-Aldana, P.A. and Mulahasan, S. (eds.), Advances in Water Resources and Exploration. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 93, pp. 291–297. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208.Eutrophication of lakes, estuaries and coastal waters is one of the global environmental issues and removal of phosphorus and nitrogen from the water is the most direct way for eutrophication control for those water bodies. The synergistic removal effects of phosphorus and nitrogen by aeration and adsorption in water under different aeration intensities and aeration patterns were investigated in the present research. The results indicated that aeration and adsorption simultaneously used had a synergistic effect on the removal of phosphate in water, over 90% of orthophosphate was removed jointly, which was significantly greater than the summational removal rate (<50%) of aeration and adsorption alone. However, such synergistic effect did not reflect in the removal of ammonia nitrogen. Similar ammonia nitrogen removal efficiency was exhibited in intermittent aeration and continuous aeration group under different aeration patterns. Therefore, intermittent aeration can be utilized for the energy consumption reduction of the further experiment. The combination of aeration and adsorption has definite advantages in the phosphate removal in water. However, further in-depth research is needed in the synergistic removal of ammonia nitrogen by adsorption and aeration. The results of present research can provide some technical references for eutrophication control in lakes, estuaries and coastal waters.