A professor at Michigan State University is part of a team developing a
new method of removing phosphorus from wastewater; a problem seriously
affecting lakes and streams across the world.
Phosphorus is part of all food as well as is in items such as detergents
and fertilizer and remains a critical problem as it is always present in human
and animal wastes.
Discharge from human and industrial wastewater and runoff into lakes and
streams can cause eutrophication, making the water unsuitable for recreational
purposes and reducing fish populations, as well as causing the growth of toxic
algae.
Researchers have figured out and tested over the past 10 years is how to
produce a media, enhanced with nanoparticles composed of iron, that can more
efficiently remove larger amounts of phosphorus from water.
Phosphorus that is dissolved in wastewater, like sugar in
water, is hard to remove. A nano-media made with waste iron can efficiently
absorb it, making it a solid that can be easily and efficiently removed and
recovered for beneficial reuse. Their method of phosphorus retrieval is much
more cost effective than processing phosphate rock. Research suggests that it
is significantly cheaper to recover phosphorus this way.
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