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Efficiencies and mechanisms of steel slag with ferric oxides for removing phosphate from wastewater using a column filter system

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Abstract

The current study aimed to investigate the efficiencies and mechanisms of slag filter media for removing phosphorus from synthetic wastewater. The steel slag with high ferric oxides (Fe2O3) was subjected for the electric arc furnace (EAF) and selected as the filter media (HFe). The chemical characteristics of HFe were determined using pH, point of zero charge (PZC) and XRF. The phosphorus removal efficiency was studied in a designed vertical steel slag column rock filters in unaerated HFe (UEF) and aerated HFe (AEF) system. The microstructure of HFe was analyzed by FTIR, XRD and SEM-EDX analysis. The results of XRF revealed that ferric oxide (Fe2O3) ranged from 26.1 to 38.2%. PZC for Filter HFe was recorded at pH 10.55 ± 0.27. The highest efficiencies were recorded by UEF and AEF systems at pH 3 and pH 5 (89.97 ± 4.02% and 79.95 ± 6.25% at pH 3 and 72.97 ± 8.38% and 66.00 ± 12.85% at pH 5 for UEF and AEF, respectively). These findings indicated that AEF exhibiting higher removal than UEF systems might be due to presence high Fe concentration in AEF which play important role in the phosphorus removal. The main elements available on the surface of HFe included carbon, oxygen, iron, calcium, magnesium, silicon, platinum, sulphur, manganese, titanium and aluminium. The XRD analysis indicated that the precipitation of orthophosphate as calcium and iron-phosphates was the removal mechanism as confirmed using FT-IR analysis. These findings demonstrated the efficiency of HFe in removing of phosphorus from wastewater.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge Master thesis of Siti Zu Nurain Ahmad (Phosphate removal efficiencies and mechanisms of different chemical compositions of steel slag column filter system) from which the manuscript is derived. The authors also acknowledge the tables and figures and confirm that there are no third-party material in the manuscript. The authors wish to thank the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) for supporting this research under FRGS 1613 (New Insight into PO43- Removal Mechanism due to the Metal Oxides Concentration’s Variuosness in Steel Slag For Industrial Wastewater Treatment).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Micro-pollutant Research Centre (MPRC), Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Civil Engineering and Built Environment, Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia, 86400 Parit Raja, Batu Pahat, Johor, Malaysia

    Siti Zu Nurain Ahmad, Adel Al-Gheethi, Rafidah Hamdan & Norzila Othman

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  1. Siti Zu Nurain Ahmad
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  2. Adel Al-Gheethi
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  3. Rafidah Hamdan
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  4. Norzila Othman
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Correspondence to Adel Al-Gheethi or Rafidah Hamdan.

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Ahmad, S.Z.N., Al-Gheethi, A., Hamdan, R. et al. Efficiencies and mechanisms of steel slag with ferric oxides for removing phosphate from wastewater using a column filter system. Environ Sci Pollut Res 27, 35184–35194 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-09582-7

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