Correlation of Phosphorus Adsorption with Chemical Properties of Aluminum-Based Drinking Water Treatment Residuals Collected from Various Parts of the United States

Authors

Roxana Rahmati, Stevens Institute of Technology
Virinder Sidhu, University of Toronto
Rosita Nunez, Ramapo College of New Jersey
Rupali Datta, Michigan Technological InstituteFollow
Dibyendu Sarkar, Stevens Institute of Technology

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

10-24-2022

Department

Department of Biological Sciences

Abstract

Over the past several decades, the value of drinking water treatment residuals (WTRs), a byproduct of the coagulation process during water purification, has been recognized in various environmental applications, including sustainable remediation of phosphorus (P)-enriched soils. Aluminum-based WTRs (Al-WTRs) are suitable adsorbent materials for P, which can be obtained and processed inexpensively. However, given their heterogeneous nature, it is essential to identify an easily analyzable chemical property that can predict the capability of Al-WTRs to bind P before soil amendment. To address this issue, thirteen Al-WTRs were collected from various geographical locations around the United States. The non-hazardous nature of the Al-WTRs was ascertained first. Then, their P adsorption capacities were determined, and the chemical properties likely to influence their adsorption capacities were examined. Statistical models were built to identify a single property to best predict the P adsorption capacity of the Al-WTRs. Results show that all investigated Al-WTRs are safe for environmental applications, and oxalate-extractable aluminum is a significant indicator of the P adsorption capacity of Al-WTRs (p-value = 0.0002, R2 = 0.7). This study is the first to report a simple chemical test that can be easily applied to predict the efficacy of Al-WTRs in binding P before their broadscale land application.

Publisher's Statement

: © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. Publisher’s version of record: https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules27217194

Publication Title

Molecules

Recommended Citation

Rahmati, R., Sidhu, V., Nunez, R., Datta, R., & Sarkar, D. (2022). Correlation of Phosphorus Adsorption with Chemical Properties of Aluminum-Based Drinking Water Treatment Residuals Collected from Various Parts of the United States. Molecules, 27(21). http://doi.org/10.3390/molecules27217194
Retrieved from: https://digitalcommons.mtu.edu/michigantech-p/16585

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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Publisher's PDF