Strength and Water Purification Properties of Environment-Friendly Construction Material Produced with the (D)PAOs and Zeolite

Abstract

The goal of this study was to improve the water purification performance of secondary concrete products that can be used in rivers and streams. To this end, mortar and porous concrete were produced by adding both de-nitrifying phosphate accumulating organisms ((D)PAOs) and zeolite, and their mechanical properties and water purification performance were analyzed. The compression strength test results showed that the strength was the highest when the mixing ratios of (D)PAOs and zeolite were set to 10% and 5%, respectively. For better contaminant adsorption, however, the optimal mixing ratio of zeolite was determined to be 10%. When the mixing ratio of (D)PAOs was set to 10%, the concentrations of biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and chemical oxygen demand (COD) decreased by 57.9% and 89.9%, respectively, after seven days of immersion when compared to the initial concentrations. When compared to plain porous concrete, the total nitrogen (T-N) and total phosphorus (T-P) removal ratios of the develop concrete were 11.0% and 17.8% higher, respectively. When the mixing ratios of (D)PAOs and zeolite were set to 10% for both, the T-N and T-P removal ratios were determined to be 86.3% and 88.1%, respectively, while the BOD and COD concentrations were 2.668 mg/L and 16.915 mg/L, respectively. In simpler terms, the water purification performance was up to 17% higher in the concrete mixed with both 10% (D)PAOs and 10% zeolite than in the concrete mixed with 10% (D)PAOs only. Overall, the optimal mixing ratios of (D)PAOs and zeolite to maximize the water purification effect of secondary concrete products while maintaining their strengths equivalent to or higher than those of their corresponding plain concrete products are considered to be 10% for both.