Ammonia nitrogen removal from micro-polluted river by permeable reactive barriers: lab-scale study with steel slag and fly ash brick in combination as reactive media

This paper focuses on the feasibility study of ammonia nitrogen removal from micro-polluted river by permeable reactive barriers with mixtures of steel slag and fly ash brick as reactive materials. The results indicated that individual maximum adsorption capacities of steel slag and fly ash brick were 0.83 and 0.42mg/g, respectively. However, 3-5mm steel slag was best for ammonia nitrogen removal in terms of removal efficiency and permeability. And the best ammonia nitrogen removal efficiency was 65.8% when the steel slag to fly ash brick ratio was 3:1. The study indicated that the steel slag and fly ash brick mixture is an effective reactive material in a permeable reactive barrier system to remove ammonia nitrogen from micro-polluted river.