Application of Phosphate Materials as Constructed Wetland Fillers for Efficient Removal of Heavy Metals from Wastewater

Xiaodan Wu, Ni Hong, Qingjing Cen, Jiaxin Lu, Hui Wan, Wei Liu, Hongli Zheng, Roger Ruan, Kirk Cobb and Yuhuan Liu
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Xiaodan Wu: State Key Laboratory of Food Science and Technology, Engineering Research Center for Biomass Conversion, Nanchang University, Ministry of Education, Nanchang 330047, China
Ni Hong: State Key Laboratory of Food Science and Technology, Engineering Research Center for Biomass Conversion, Nanchang University, Ministry of Education, Nanchang 330047, China
Qingjing Cen: State Key Laboratory of Food Science and Technology, Engineering Research Center for Biomass Conversion, Nanchang University, Ministry of Education, Nanchang 330047, China
Jiaxin Lu: State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Food Chain Pollution Control, Beijing Technology and Business University, Beijing 100048, China
Hui Wan: State Key Laboratory of Food Science and Technology, Engineering Research Center for Biomass Conversion, Nanchang University, Ministry of Education, Nanchang 330047, China
Wei Liu: Agricultural Products Testing Sub-Center, Nanchang Inspection and Testing Center, Nanchang 330005, China
Hongli Zheng: State Key Laboratory of Food Science and Technology, Engineering Research Center for Biomass Conversion, Nanchang University, Ministry of Education, Nanchang 330047, China
Roger Ruan: Center for Biorefining, Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN 55108, USA
Kirk Cobb: Center for Biorefining, Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN 55108, USA
Yuhuan Liu: State Key Laboratory of Food Science and Technology, Engineering Research Center for Biomass Conversion, Nanchang University, Ministry of Education, Nanchang 330047, China

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 9, 1-12

Abstract: Constructed wetlands are an environmentally friendly and economically efficient sewage treatment technology. Heavy metals (HMs) removal is always regarded as one of the most important tasks in constructed wetlands, which have aroused increasing concern in the field of contamination control in recent times. The fillers of constructed wetlands play an important role in HMs removal. However, traditional wetland fillers (e.g., zeolite, sand, and gravel) are known to be imperfect because of their low adsorption capacity. Regarding HMs removal, our work involved the selection of prominent absorbents, the evaluation of adsorption stability for various treatments, and then the possibility of applying this HM removal technology to constructed wetlands. For this purpose, several phosphate materials were tested to remove the heavy metals Cu and Zn. Three good phosphates including hydroxyapatite (HAP), calcium phosphate (CP), and physic acid sodium salt hydrate (PAS) demonstrated fast removal efficiency of HMs (Cu 2+ , Zn 2+ ) from aqueous solution. The maximum removal rates of Cu 2+ and Zn 2+ by HAP, CP, and PAS reached 81.6% and 95.8%; 66.9% and 70.4%; 98.8% and 1.99%, respectively. In addition, better adsorption stability of these heavy metals was found to occur with a wide variation of desorption time and pH range. The most remarkable efficiency for heavy metal removal among tested phosphates was PAS, followed by HAP and CP. This study can provide a basis for the application of HMs removal in manmade wetland systems.

Keywords: copper; physic acid sodium salt hydrate; adsorption selectivity; adsorption stability; adsorption kinetic model (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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