Assessment of Pollutants Sequestration in Flowing Waters Using Phosphorus Removal Materials.

Many industrial waste products have already been reported as plausible non-conventional adsorbents of heavy metals and some other important nutrients, such as phosphorus. Steel slag, a by-product of steel production, had its use explored in wastewater treatment since it is a low cost solid adsorbent with high affinity for P binding. The objective of this study was to construct a P removal system in a 0.3 m wide, 0.3 m deep and 10 m long flume toward monitoring its removal capacity during a constant phosphorus injection using river water.  A flow through system composed by 20 kg of steel slag contained in a wire cage was placed in the flume in order to form a ponded area, similar to a proposed remediation scheme in a drainage ditch. Water samples were collected before and after the steel slag cage location every 6 minutes for 4 hours. The samples were analyzed for phosphorus.  In this presentation, we will discuss how the steel slag performs regarding phosphorus removal and, therefore, its potential usage to remediate contaminated water. 22.78% of phosphorus was removed by comparing the total mass before and after the flow through system. However, 1.85% of phosphorus was added to the system by comparing the section after the steel slag and the outflow.