Adsorption of phosphate in water on a novel calcium hydroxide-coated dairy manure-derived biochar

The present study investigated a novel calcium hydroxide-coated dairy manure-derived biochar (Ca-BC) for adsorption of phosphate from water and dairy wastewater. The Ca-BC showed much higher adsorption of phosphate than that of dairy manure-derived biochar. The Ca-BC possessed mainly the calcium hydroxide and various functional groups resulting in high reactivity between phosphate and calcium hydroxide in the Ca-BC. The adsorption of phosphate onto Ca-BC followed pseudo-second order kinetic and Freundlich isotherm models indicating chemisorptive interaction occurred on energetically heterogeneous surface of Ca-BC. The maximum adsorption capacity of the Ca-BC was higher than those of iron oxide and zinc oxide-coated biochars, but lower than those of CaO- and MgO-coated biochars. However, the Ca-BC showed high reactivity per surface area for adsorption of phosphate indicating importance of surface functionalization of biochar. On the other hand, the adsorption of phosphate in dairy wastewater on Ca-BC was lower than that in water owing to competition between other anions in wastewater and phosphate. Overall, the Ca-BC would be a low cost and effective adsorbent for recovery of phosphate from water and wastewater.