Development of an adsorption process for the removal and recovery of ammonium and phosphate from municipal wastewater sewer overflow

This master's thesis analyzes wastewater treatment system design advances. This method is essential to the STOP UP project, which analyzes urban pollution's effects on water resources, focusing on runoff. The runoff waters contain a significant number of pollutants that result from the washing of roadways, paved surfaces, industrial and commercial areas, as well as the drainage from roofs in urban catchment regions. Presently, most of these liquids are discharged directly into a receiving body of water without undergoing any additional cleaning operations. This study aims to explore the possibility of wastewater serving as a viable source for the retrieval of valuable molecules, specifically ammonium and phosphate ions, from urban sewage overflow. This research holds significant value within the context of advancing water quality and environmental preservation in response to problems arising from climate change. The study discusses the preliminary screening phase of STOP UP and focuses on finding high-functioning adsorbents for ammonium, phosphate, and heavy metals from sewer overflow. The initial phase of this study consisted of the identification of prospective materials, including zeolites MS13X, Chabazite Na+ form, zeo4A, geopolymer G13 for ammonium removal, as well as calcined Pyroaurite, Sorbacid 911, and Pural 61 for phosphate removal. Based on different tests MS13X and Sorbacid911 have been selected for ammonium and phosphate removal respectively. The materials served as the foundation for adsorption isotherms, facilitating the evaluation of kinetics to determine the water-adsorbent contact times for preliminary systems. A preliminary pilot plant includes a filtration system and a packed bed column, a reduced-scale model of the final treatment facility, used to screen the process parameters and the pollutant removal in semi-real conditions. The treatment approach exhibits sustainability and the possibility of regeneration of the used adsorbent materials.