IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v17y2025i13p6069-d1693387.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Operational Design Considerations for Phosphorus Adsorption Media (PAM)

Author

Listed:
  • Younsuk Dong

    (Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA)

  • Steven I. Safferman

    (Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA
    Current address: Environmental Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Lemont, IL 60439, USA.)

Abstract

Phosphorus Adsorption Media (PAM) is an emerging technology used to remove phosphorus from water and has the advantage of minimal operation and maintenance support when compared to biological and chemical treatments. Although the capacity of PAM has been researched, the understanding of important design parameters for PAM is lacking. Therefore, this study focused on determining critical design parameters for PAM, such as hydraulic loading, Empty Bed Contact Time (EBCT), and its impact on the media’s capacity. In addition, the regeneration potential of PAM and the mathematical model for predicting the exhaustion of PAM are discussed to provide a practice tool for designing PAM. The results indicate that hydraulic loadings do not show a strong effect on PAM performance, as there are no significant differences between hydraulic loadings of 0.05, 0.12, and 0.22 mL/min/cm 2 . This study also showed that the higher EBCT (190 min) has higher removal rates than the lower EBCT (60 and 90 min). This indicated that EBCT is a critical design parameter for PAM. Laboratory studies demonstrating the regeneration of exhausted media by washing with a caustic solution have been conducted, and a qualitative study showed that exhausted media can be used in hydroponics. Batch testing showed that over 99% of the sorbed phosphorus was eliminated after six cycles of the regeneration process.

Suggested Citation

  • Younsuk Dong & Steven I. Safferman, 2025. "Operational Design Considerations for Phosphorus Adsorption Media (PAM)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(13), pages 1-15, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:13:p:6069-:d:1693387
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/13/6069/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/13/6069/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jessica K. Hauda & Steven I. Safferman & Ehsan Ghane, 2020. "Adsorption Media for the Removal of Soluble Phosphorus from Subsurface Drainage Water," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(20), pages 1-18, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jihoon Kang & Jason Parsons & Sampath Gunukula & Dat T. Tran, 2022. "Iron and Magnesium Impregnation of Avocado Seed Biochar for Aqueous Phosphate Removal," Clean Technol., MDPI, vol. 4(3), pages 1-13, July.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:13:p:6069-:d:1693387. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.