Use of phosphorus-sorbing materials to remove phosphate from greenhouse wastewater

High phosphate content in wastewater is currently a major issue faced by the North American greenhouse industry. Phosphate-sorbing material filters could provide a means of removing phosphate from wastewater prior to discharge to the environment, but the characterization of economically viable materials and specific recommendations for greenhouse wastewater are not available. Batch and column experiments were used to examine the capacity of two calcium-based waste materials, basic oxygen furnace slag and a concrete waste material, to remove phosphate from greenhouse nutrient solution at varied operating conditions. Material columns operating at a hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 3 h consistently removed >99% of influent phosphate at a concentration of 60 mg/L over repeated applications and demonstrated high phosphate retention capacity (PRC) of 8.8 and 5.1 g P/kg for slag and concrete waste, respectively. Both materials also provided some removal of the micronutrients Fe, Mn and Zn. Increasing HRT to 24 h increased P retention capacity of slag to >10.5 g P/kg but did not improve retention by concrete waste. Decreasing influent phosphate concentration to 20 mg/L decreased PRC to 1.64 g P/kg in concrete waste columns, suggesting fluctuations in greenhouse wastewater composition will affect filter performance. The pH of filter effluent was closely correlated to final P concentration and can likely be used to monitor treatment effectiveness. This study demonstrated that calcium-based materials are promising for the removal of phosphate from greenhouse wastewater, and worthy of further research on scaling up the application to a full-sized system.