Potential to use municipal waste bio char in wastewater treatment for nutrients recovery

Huge amounts of organic waste are being generated on a daily basis. This waste has potential to be converted to bio char through the pyrolysis technology and can act as bio adsorbent and bio filter during wastewater treatment. In this study, municipal wastewater was treated with bio char at the bio filtration stage and the changes in the chemical oxygen demand (COD), total suspended solids (TSS), total Kjeldahl nitrogen (TKN), total phosphates (TP) and pH were measured before and after treatment with biochar using standard methods. Bio char with surface area of 1000 m(2)/g and loading of 1 g/L was steam activated was used. The wastewater COD, TSS, TKN and TP showed a 90%, 89%, 64% and 78% reduction respectively after being passed through the bio char bio filter. In addition the wastewater pH changed from alkaline to neutral. Bio char can be effectively be used as a bio filter in wastewater treatment to meet guidelines for wastewater effluent disposal.