Determination of Phosphorus Removal Mechanism in Aerated and Unaerated Steel Slag Filter System as Secondary Treatment System for Textile Industrial Wastewater

Abstract

Phosphorus is the element that promotes growth in plant. However, over loading of phosphorus into surfaces water leads to severe environmental problems known as eutrophication. Improper treatments of phosphorus removal prior discharges from industrial effluent are one of the contributions to eutrophication. Textile effluent is one of the sources of phosphorus loading in surface water with concentration of 1-9 mg/L P. Since attentions are given in removing the color from the effluent, phosphorus is commonly ignored in wastewater treatment system. Thus, the study of phosphorus removal in textile wastewater is conducted using steel slag system filter under aerated (ASSF) and unaerated (USSF) condition. The systemwas set up for influent pHrange of 5.30-7.00 at primary treated wastewaterfor textile wastewaterunder aerated and unaerated condition. Sampling was done twice a week for 12 weeksand analyzed for Total phosphorus concentration. The Activated Carbon(ACF)filterin the existing treatment system is also sampled to compare the removal efficiency The USSFfilter shows better removal than ASSFfilter with46% to 70%of efficiency removal.Meanwhile, the removal efficiency of ASSF is 37% to 66%.The adsorbate formed in ASSF is analyzed using SEM-EDX and the precipitation formed in USSF is analyzed using XRD.This shows that steel slag filter provides promising result in phosphorus removal.