Adsorption and regeneration characteristics of phosphorus from sludge dewatering filtrate by magnetic anion exchange resin

Removal and recovery of phosphorus (P) from sewage are essential for sustainable development of P resource. Based on the water quality determination of sludge dewatering filtrate from a wastewater treatment plant in Beijing, this study investigated the adsorption and regeneration characteristics of P by magnetic anion exchange resin (MAEX). The experiments showed that the P adsorption capacity of MAEX could reach a maximum of 2.74 mg/mL when initial P concentration was 25 mg/L and dosage of MAEX was 8 mL/L. The P adsorption on MAEX resin was suitable for large temperature range (283–323 K). However, the adsorption capacity was reduced in various degrees due to the interference of different anions (Br⁻, SO₄²⁻, Cl⁻, NO₃⁻, HCO₃⁻, CO₃²⁻) and organic compounds (bovine serum albumin, humic acid). Kinetics studies indicated that the P adsorption process followed the pseudo-second-order model. The MAEX resin had a rapid P adsorption rate and the P adsorption capacity at 30 min could reach 97.7–99.3% of qₑ. Increase of temperature was favorable to P adsorption on MAEX, and the adsorption isotherm data fitted to Langmuir model more than Freundlich model. Meanwhile, the thermodynamics parameters were calculated; it was shown that the adsorption process was an endothermic reaction. Desorption and regeneration experiments showed that NaHCO₃ was a suitable regenerant, and the P adsorption capacity could reach 90.51% of the original capacity after 10 times of adsorption-desorption cycles; this indicated that MAEX resin has an excellent regeneration performance and thus has a very good application prospect of P removal and recovery. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis confirmed that ion exchange, charge attraction, and hydrogen bonding affected the removal of P by the MAEX resin. The vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) analysis revealed that MAEX resin was a kind of soft magnetic materials with good magnetism.