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Title

SOLIDS ROLE IN TERTIARY CHEMICAL PHOSPHORUS REMOVAL BY ALUM

Creator

Maher, Chris

Date

2013, 2013-12

Description

Chemical phosphorus (P) removal is commonly implemented in wastewater treatment to remove P to very low levels (
Show moreChemical phosphorus (P) removal is commonly implemented in wastewater treatment to remove P to very low levels (<0.1 mg P/L). The dose of precipitant (Al or Fe) needed is several times the stoichiometric dose in order to achieve a filtered effluent level of < 30 μg TP/L. The mechanistic basis for P removal using chemical precipitant addition is generally considered to be more than simple precipitation. The role of adsorption and/or complexation in removal of reactive or unreactive phosphorus to the already formed chemical precipitates or complexes has been investigated. Potential operational efficiency gains resulting from age of chemically precipitated solids and the recycle of these solids to the process stream was undertaken at the Iowa Hill Water Reclamation Facility which employs the DensaDeg® process (IDI, Richmond, VA) for tertiary chemical P removal. The effect of solids age was found to be insignificant over the solids retention time of 2 to 8 days, indicating that the solids were unaffected by the aging effects of decreasing porosity and surface acidity, and that the bulk of solids were retained in the clarifier blanket, hence providing no advantage in the removal mechanisms from increased concentration of solids. When solids recycle was redirected from the traditional location of the flocculation reactor to a point just prior to chemical addition in the chemical mixing reactor, lower effluent soluble P concentrations at lower molar doses of aluminum were achieved. At laboratory scale, the “spent” or “waste” chemical sludge showed high capacity and rapid kinetics for P sorption from real wastewater effluents. A number of scenarios were tested and the wide range of parameter values indicate that the sorption reaction is rather specific to the sludge and the process water matrix. x Saturation concentrations were in the range of 8 to 29 mg soluble reactive P/g solids. Higher saturation concentrations were found at higher temperatures. Ambiguous results were obtained for the effect of sludge age on capacity, implying dependence on either aging conditions or sample matrices. In all instances alum sludge produced without a coagulant aid polymer had a much higher capacity for P sorption than polymer based sludge. The reaction reached equilibrium in less than 10 minutes with 50% or greater removal within the first minute. Removal reactions were modeled well by nth order equations with n 3 and by exponential data fitting. Modeled as a sorption process, the pseudo-second order model presented by Ho and McKay in 1999 proved to be an excellent fit. Second order rate constants ranged approximately from 0.1 to 6 (g mg-1 min-1) depending on the P fraction examined, age of sludge, reaction temperature, and presence or absence of coagulant aid polymer in the sludge.
M.S. in in Environmental Engineering, December 2013
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