Phosphorus removal from wastewater using Ca-modified attapulgite: Fixed-bed column performance and breakthrough curves analysis

The adsorbent calcium-modified attapulgite (Ca-GAT) prepared by calcium chloride modification and high temperature treatment (700 °C) has proved to remove phosphorus in low-concentration phosphorus wastewater in batch adsorption experiments. Dynamic adsorption performance and industrial application potential still need further determination. This study explored the effects of various parameters on the dynamic phosphorus adsorption, including initial phosphate concentration (2-10 mg/L), flow rate (1-3 mL/min) and adsorption bed height (2-6 cm). Phosphorus adsorption ability improved and the breakthrough time increased with the increase of bed height, flow rate, and a decrease in initial phosphorus concentration. Breakthrough curves fitted four models, the Adams-Bohart, Thomas, Yoon-Nelson and Bed depth service time (BDST). The maximum adsorption amount determined by the Thomas model obtained 13.477 mg/g. The saturated fixed-bed column were regenerated with NaOH, NaOH + NaCl and HCl, among which 0.5 mol/L NaOH had the best regeneration effect. During the utilization of a large fixed-bed to treat the actual membrane bioreactor (MBR) effluent, the breakthrough point (0.5 mg/L) was obtained after 177 h. These results implied that Ca-GAT had an application potential for the treatment of low-concentration phosphorus wastewater (2 mg/L).