Journal of Applied Science and Engineering

Published by Tamkang University Press

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Chawalit Chaiwong1,2, Thammarat Koottatep2, Yaowalak Chirasuwannaphot2,3, Chanikarn Thanasrilungkul2, Panadda Panchai2, Wilasinee Chanamarn2, Pongsak (Lek) Noophan1This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Tamao Kasahara4, Sumeth Wongkiew5,6, and Chongrak Polprasert3

1Department of Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Kasetsart University, Bangkok, Thailand

2Environmental Engineering and Management, School of Environments Resources and Development, Asian Institute of Technology, Pathumthani, Thailand

3Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Thammasat University, Pathumthani, Thailand

4Laboratory of Ecohydrology, Division of Forest Sciences, Department of Agro-environmental Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka 819-0395 Japan

5Department of Environmental Science, Faculty of Science, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand

6Water Science and Technology for Sustainable Environment Research Unit, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok 10330, Thailand


 

Received: July 25, 2023
Accepted: November 5, 2023
Publication Date: December 13, 2023

 Copyright The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are cited.


Download Citation: ||https://doi.org/10.6180/jase.202409_27(9).0010  


Common adsorbents are typically developed to treat a sole targeted pollutant in wastewater. This research provides the multifunctional features of ceramsite, a sewage sludge-based adsorbents developed for removing phosphorus (P) and disinfecting pathogens in municipal wastewater. The ceramsite adsorbents were made by mixing sewage sludge with zeolite, bentonite, and magnesium oxide (MgO) powders. Batch experiment results revealed that the developed ceramsite adsorbents significantly removed phosphorus (0.45mgP/g), effectively inactivated fecal coliforms (3.7 log reduction). and reached an optimum hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 6 hours. Moreover, in the continuous filter columns, the developed adsorbents effectively removed P(0.14mgP/g : 93%) and simultaneously inactivated fecal coliforms (3.4 log reduction) in wastewater treatment plant effluent. The ratio of added MgO powder and pH values correlated well with phosphorus and pathogen removal results (R2 > 0.96). The adsorption isotherm for TP removal by the adsorbents (S50 and S60) fitted well with the Langmuir model  (R2 > 0.95). The kinetics of TP and pathogen removal by the adsorbents followed the pseudo-second order (R2 > 0.97) the first-order reaction models (R2 > 0.87), respectively.


Keywords: Adsorbents; Sewage sludge; Municipal wastewater; Phosphorus; Pathogens


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