TY - JOUR
T1 - Nutrient removal in floating and vertical flow constructed wetlands using aluminium dross
T2 - An innovative approach to mitigate eutrophication
AU - Mittal, Yamini
AU - Srivastava, Pratiksha
AU - Kumar, Naresh
AU - Tripathy, Bankim Chandra
AU - Martinez, Fernando
AU - Yadav, Asheesh Kumar
PY - 2024/10
Y1 - 2024/10
N2 - On global scale, eutrophication is one of the most prevalent environmental threats to water quality, primarily caused by elevated concentration of nutrients in wastewater. This study utilizes aluminum dross (AD), an industrial waste, to create a value-added material by improving its operational feasibility and application for removing phosphate and ammonium from water. The operational challenges of AD such as its powdered nature and effective operation under only extreme pH conditions were addressed by immobilizing in calcium alginate to form calcium alginate aluminium dross (Ca-Alg-Al dross) beads. These Ca-Alg-Al dross beads were further tested for phosphate and ammonium removal from natural wastewater in two different aqueous environment systems: (i) vertical flow constructed wetlands (VF-CWs) followed by Ca-Alg-Al dross beads fixed bed system and (ii) Ca-Alg-Al dross beads mounted floating constructed wetlands (FCW) for remediating polluted lentic ecosystems. Our results show maximum phosphate and ammonium removal of 85 ± 0.41 % and 93.44 %, respectively, in VF-CWs followed by Ca-Alg-Al dross beads fixed bed system. The Ca-Alg-Al dross beads mounted FCW system achieved maximum phosphate removal of 79.18 ± 8.56 % and ammonium removal of 65.45 ± 21.04 %. Furthermore, the treated water from the FCW system was assessed for its potential to inhibit algal growth by artificially inoculating treated water with natural algae to simulate eutrophic conditions. Interestingly, treated water from the FCW system was found capable of arresting the algal growth. Besides, scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray (SEM-EDX) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy confirmed the functional groups and surface properties and probable participation of multiple mechanisms including ion exchange, electrostatic attraction, and ligand complexation for phosphate and ammonium removal. Overall, these results offer a promising way to utilize AD for high-end applications in wastewater treatment.
AB - On global scale, eutrophication is one of the most prevalent environmental threats to water quality, primarily caused by elevated concentration of nutrients in wastewater. This study utilizes aluminum dross (AD), an industrial waste, to create a value-added material by improving its operational feasibility and application for removing phosphate and ammonium from water. The operational challenges of AD such as its powdered nature and effective operation under only extreme pH conditions were addressed by immobilizing in calcium alginate to form calcium alginate aluminium dross (Ca-Alg-Al dross) beads. These Ca-Alg-Al dross beads were further tested for phosphate and ammonium removal from natural wastewater in two different aqueous environment systems: (i) vertical flow constructed wetlands (VF-CWs) followed by Ca-Alg-Al dross beads fixed bed system and (ii) Ca-Alg-Al dross beads mounted floating constructed wetlands (FCW) for remediating polluted lentic ecosystems. Our results show maximum phosphate and ammonium removal of 85 ± 0.41 % and 93.44 %, respectively, in VF-CWs followed by Ca-Alg-Al dross beads fixed bed system. The Ca-Alg-Al dross beads mounted FCW system achieved maximum phosphate removal of 79.18 ± 8.56 % and ammonium removal of 65.45 ± 21.04 %. Furthermore, the treated water from the FCW system was assessed for its potential to inhibit algal growth by artificially inoculating treated water with natural algae to simulate eutrophic conditions. Interestingly, treated water from the FCW system was found capable of arresting the algal growth. Besides, scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray (SEM-EDX) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy confirmed the functional groups and surface properties and probable participation of multiple mechanisms including ion exchange, electrostatic attraction, and ligand complexation for phosphate and ammonium removal. Overall, these results offer a promising way to utilize AD for high-end applications in wastewater treatment.
KW - Adsorption
KW - Ca-Alg-Al dross beads development
KW - Constructed wetlands
KW - Eutrophication
KW - Lentic ecosystem remediation
KW - Nature-based wastewater treatment
KW - P recovery
U2 - 10.1016/j.biortech.2024.131205
DO - 10.1016/j.biortech.2024.131205
M3 - Article
C2 - 39097238
AN - SCOPUS:85201465558
SN - 0960-8524
VL - 410
JO - Bioresource Technology
JF - Bioresource Technology
M1 - 131205
ER -
