The renewable pine needles was used as an adsorbent to remove phosphorus from aqueous solutions. Using batch experiments, pine needles pretreated with alkali-isopropanol (AI) failed to effectively remove phosphorus, while pine needles modified with lanthanum hydroxide (LH) showed relatively high removal efficiency. LH pine needles were effective at a wide pH ranges, with the highest removal efficiency reaching approximately 85% at a pH of 3. The removal efficiency was kept above 65% using 10 mg/L phosphorus solutions at desired pH values. There was no apparent significant competitive behavior between co-existing anions of sulfate, nitrate, and chloride (SO42-, NO3- and Cl-); however, CO32- exhibited increased interfering behavior as concentrations increased. An intraparticle diffusion model showed that the adsorption process occurred in three phases, suggesting that a boundary layer adsorption phenomena slightly affected the adsorption process, and that intraparticle diffusion was dominant. The adsorption process was thermodynamically unfavorable and non-spontaneous; temperature increases improved phosphorus removal. Total organic carbon (TOC) assays indicated that chemical modification reduced the release of soluble organic compounds from 135.6 mg/L to 7.76 mg/L. This new information about adsorption performances provides valuable information, and can inform future technological applications designed to remove phosphorus from aqueous solutions.
School of Environment, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, China;School of Environment, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, China;School of Environment, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, China;School of Environment, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, China;Jilin Engineering Research Centre for Municipal Wastewater Treatment and Water Quality Protection, Changchun, China;School of Environment, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, China;Jilin Engineering Research Centre for Municipal Wastewater Treatment and Water Quality Protection, Changchun, China;School of Environment, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, China;Jilin Engineering Research Centre for Municipal Wastewater Treatment and Water Quality Protection, Changchun, China
Recommended Citation:
Xianze Wang,Zhongmou Liu,Jiancong Liu,et al. Removing Phosphorus from Aqueous Solutions Using Lanthanum Modified Pine Needles[J]. PLOS ONE,2015-01-01,10(12)