Study on Simultaneous Removal of Nitrogen and Phosphorus Using Zeocarbon

The objective of this study was to evaluate the possibility of simultaneous removal of ammonium, nitrate and phosphorus in water using the zeocarbon. In this study, the surface of zeocarbon was modified by acid because of difficulty in application of water treatment. After surface modification, the strength was enhanced about 62% higher than that of original one. The removal efficiency of ammonium and nitrate using the modified zeocarbon was about 47% and 32%, respectively and were higher than that of zeocarbon. In batch type experiment on the simultaneous removal of ammonium, nitrate and phosphorus, the presence of phosphorus did not have influence on nitrogen removal efficiency. Concomitantly, removal efficiency of phosphorus was obtained was about 35%. This indicates that the surface modified zeocarbon can be applied for simultaneous removal of nitrogen and phosphorus. Consequently, our results could be used as basic data to design of one-stage nitrogen/phosphorus simultaneous removal system.