Using Iron-Manganese Co-Oxide Filter Film to Remove Ammonium from Surface Water

An iron-manganese co-oxide filter film (MeO_x) has been proven to be a good catalyst for the chemical catalytic oxidation of ammonium in groundwater. Compared with groundwater, surface water is generally used more widely and has characteristics that make ammonium removal more difficult. In this study, MeO_x was used to remove ammonium from surface water. It indicated that the average ammonium removal efficiency of MeO_x was greater than 90%, even though the water quality changed dramatically and the water temperature was reduced to about 6-8 °C. Then, through inactivating microorganisms, it showed that the removal capability of MeO_x included both biological (accounted for about 41.05%) and chemical catalytic oxidation and chemical catalytic oxidation (accounted for about 58.95%). The investigation of the characterizations suggested that MeO_x was formed by abiotic ways and the main elements on the surface of MeO_x were distributed homogenously. The analysis of the catalytic oxidation process indicated that ammonia nitrogen may interact with MeO_x as both ammonia molecules and ammonium ions and the active species of O₂ were possibly ^•O and O₂^-.