Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Nitrogen and phosphorus-rich wastewater effluents result in eutrophication of water resources and threatens aquatic life. Therefore, wastewater should pass through treatment processes to reduce the phosphorus and nitrogen concentrations below the permissible legal limits. In this study, phosphorus and nitrogen removal performance of both zeolite, abundantly available in Türkiye and rice husk, abundantly available waste material, from synthetic wastewaters were assessed through filter column tests. Materials were used both alone and in mixtures (25:75, 50:50 and 75:25). Phosphorus (mono potassium phosphate) and nitrogen solutions (potassium nitrate) at different concentrations (0, 10, 25 and 50 mg L-1) passes through filter media at flow rate of 5.0 mL/min. Effluent samples taken at the end of 3rd, 6th, 12th, 24th and 48th hours were subjected to pH, electrical conductivity (EC), total phosphorus (TP) and total nitrogen (TN) analyses. The highest nitrogen removal efficiency (75.1%) was achieved with 75:25 zeolite:rice husk mixture at end of the 3rd hour from 10 mg L-1 influent concentration and the lowest with the same mixture at the end of 48th hour from 50 mg L-1 influent concentration. The highest phosphorus removal efficiency (19.4%) was achieved with pure zeolite at the end of the 3rd hour from 10 mg L-1 influent concentration and the lowest (0.14%) with 25:75 zeolite:rice husk mixture at the end of the 48th hour from 50 mg L-1 influent concentration. It was concluded based on present findings that rice husk further improved nitrogen removal efficiency of zeolite.
Authors: Hasan Ali IRIK, Yusuf Can AŞIK
Institution: Erciyes University
Language: English
Subfield: Waste Management and Disposal
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
Funder: Erciyes Üniversitesi
OpenAlex ID: W4409647524