Inorganic phosphate is a nutrient that in some cases can become an environmental contaminant that leads to a variety of environmental problems including increased algal blooms, bacterial contamination, and in extreme cases the permanent greening of waterways a process called eutrophication.  Excess phosphate contamination can be attributed to a variety of causes including over fertilization and water runoff from farming or from Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO's).  Polymer flocculants have ben shown to reduce the phosphate concentration in water by removing suspended solids thereby removing the phosphate sorbed to the solids. The purpose of this study was to determine the amount, if any, of phosphate that is sorbed to the polymer. Several polymers were chosen including Polyacrylamide, Poly(diallyldimethyl ammonium chloride), and Epichlorohydrin/dimthylamine to represent different polymer structures as well as different positive charge density on the polymers. Results from dosing experiments as well as sorption isotherms will be discussed.

Evaluation of several commercially available cationic polymer flocculants for phosphate sorption in water

248th National Meeting (2014)

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