Removal of phosphate from wastewater by adsorption onto composite made from chitosan and calcium carbonate

Abstract

Calcium carbonate in the form of calcite and aragonite has previously shown potential for removing low concentrations of phosphate from wastewater. This project look at how calcium carbonate can be used to make an adsorbent that belong to a fairly new class of composite adsorbents that utilizes chitosan and inorganic materials. The motivation for using a composite instead of calcium carbonate alone is that this minerals ability to adsorb phosphate is surface specific. In order to maximize the amount of available surface area, the calcite and aragonite will need to be milled extensively into a very fine powder which makes in impractical to separate from water in larger scale.