Phosphate removal using blast furnace slags and opoka-mechanisms

The abiotic sorption efficiency of on-site wastewater treatment systems can be improved by using a strongly sorbing filter material that, if it retains phosphorus (P) in a plant available way, can be used as fertiliser when P saturation is achieved. Two materials, blast furnace slag and the siliceous sedimentary rock opoka, have shown a high P sorption capacity and were included in a set of experiments to investigate the P retention mechanisms from model P-solution. Experiments focusing on the P sorption, capacity and calcium (Ca) and PO4 determination were carried out. The pH was also measured. The P sorption experiment showed that some slags were efficient P retainers, while the opoka was the least efficient P retainer. The pH decreased in all samples as a function of P addition. In the slag samples, the Ca concentration also decreased as a function of P addition, suggesting Ca-P precipitation as the major P removal mechanism for the slag. The Ca and PO4 speciation data ruled out the formation of amorphous calcium phosphates and/or octacalcium phosphate as the major P removal mechanism. However, the calculated ion activity products displayed clear evidence that hydroxyapatite had precipitated above a certain critical supersaturation limit. This would explain the poor P retention efficiency of the opoka samples in this study as the ion activity products were too low. The finding that direct hydroxyapatite formation is the predominant P removal mechanism might have important implications for their possible use as fertiliser due to the poor solubility of hydroxyapatite. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.