Performance of carbon nanotube-coated steel slag for high concentrations of phosphorus from pig manure

The study objective was to evaluate the enhanced removal of high concentrations of phosphorus from synthetic wastewater (solely phosphorus-containing) and real wastewater (pig manure) by using carbon nanotube (CNT)-coated steel slag. Generally, phosphorus removal by steel slag is attributed to Ca2+ eluted from the slag. However, in this study, CNT was used to control the excess release of Ca2+ from steel slag and increase the phosphorus removal. The phosphorus removal rate by the uncoated steel slag was lower than that of the CNT-coated steel slag, even though the Ca2+ concentrations were higher in the solution containing the uncoated steel slag. Therefore, the phosphorus removal could be attributed to both precipitation with Ca2+ eluted from steel slag in aqueous solution and adsorption onto the surface of the CNT-coated steel slag. Furthermore, the protons released from the CNT surface by exchanging with divalent cations acted to reduce the pH increase of the solution, which is attributed to the OH- eluted from the steel slag. The adsorption isotherm and kinetics of the CNT-coated steel slags followed the Freundlich isotherm and pseudo-second-order model, respectively. The maximum adsorption capacity of the uncoated and CNT-coated steel slags was 6.127 and 9.268 mg P g-1 slag, respectively. In addition, phosphorus from pig manure was more effectively removed by the CNT-coated steel slag than by the uncoated slag. Over 24 hours, the PO4-P removal in pig manure was 12.3% higher by the CNT-coated slag. This CNT-coated steel slag can be used to remove both phosphorus and metals and has potential applications in high phosphorus-containing wastewater like pig manure.