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Abstract

Phosphorus is a vital component essential to the both plants and animals. Furthermore, phosphorus circulates through the Earth as a result of interactions between biological processes in the biosphere and human activities. Phosphorus is frequently not harmful, nevertheless if added in excessive amounts to waterbodies, it can lead to detrimental environmental conditions like eutrophication. Eutrophication has adverse effects on more than only the environment. As a result, sensitive and vital sectors like security and health as well as heavily dependent industries like food and fisheries, tourism, etc., encounter tremendous losses.

Thus, it is crucial to remove the effluent to comply with the standard requirements. The UK local government legislation has set phosphorus concentration limits for wastewater at 0.25 mg/l. Extensive study has focused on methods to remove phosphorus, leading to the development of innovative ways. However, the majority of them are unsuitable for rural locations in the UK. The complex nature of various procedures results in significant in advance and maintenance costs. This research was designed to address above specific issues and offer solutions. The study examined the efficacy of phosphorus removal using raw biochar alongside additional biochar modifications, varying their doses and adjusting various parameters. Both jar test and column test were used for that purpose. 

This research show that biochar treated with Fe has the maximum efficiency in removing phosphorus. An increase in the amount of biochar immediately improves phosphorus removal efficiency by around 90%. For excessive amounts of phosphorus. It is more efficient than magnesium (60%) and unaltered charcoal (25%). Furthermore, it has been demonstrated theoretically that Fe-modified biochar is appropriate at high concentrations of phosphorus but inappropriate at low concentrations of almost 0 mg/l. 

The phosphorus concentration in UK waste water is around 10 mg/l. To decrease it to 0.25 mg/l, a clearance efficiency of approximately 97.5% is required. Hence, hybrid technique combining unmodified biochar and Fe-modified biochar is suggested since unmodified biochar effectively eliminating very low phosphorus concentrations near to zero.

Course: Civil Engineering - MSc - C0618

Date Deposited: 2025-01-16

URI/permalink: https://library.port.ac.uk/dissert/dis14648.html