Phosphorus removal from wastewater using oven dried alum sludge

The present study deals with the removal of phosphorus from wastewater by using alum sludge and more particularly oven dried alum sludge (ODS) as adsorbent. Alum sludge used in this search was collected from Baghdad treatment plant; it was heated in an oven at 105 Co for 24 hours, and then cooled to room temperature. The sludge particles were then crushed to produce a particle size of (0.5, 2.36 and 4.75) mm. Two modes of operation are used in present work, batch mode and fixed bed mode. In batch experiment the effect of oven dried alum sludge doses (10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 g/L), pH of solution (5, 6, 7 and 8) with constant initial phosphorus concentration of 5 mg/L and constant particle size of 0.5 mm were studied. The results showed that the percent removal of phosphorus increases with the increase of oven dried alum sludge dose, but pH of solution has insignificant effect. In the fixed bed isothermal adsorption column, the effect of initial phosphorus concentration (Co) (5 and 10) mg/L, particle size (2.36 and 4.75) mm, influent flow rate (Q) (6 and 10) L/hr and bed depth (H) (0.15, 0.25 and 0.415) m were studied. The results showed that the oven dried alum sludge was effective

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Sarmad A. Rashid is An Assistant Lecturer in the department of Chemical Engineering at Baghdad University, where he received his B.Sc. in Chemical Eng. in 1995, He also hold a M.Sc. in Water Treatment in 2009. Sarmad has been teaching in various capacities since 2000, and currently serves in the Chemical Engineering Department / Baghdad University.