DETERMINATION OF THE PERFORMANCE OF SAND, ZEOLITE AND VERMICULITE MIXTURE IN REMOVAL OF PHOSPHORUS FROM WASTEWATER

Domestic and industrial wastewater discharged directly into the receiving environment without treatment causes serious deterioration in aquatic ecosystems due to their high phosphorus content, which threatens life. Phosphorus accelerates the eutrophication process, especially in stagnant water bodies such as lakes and dams, causing algae formation, decreased oxygen levels and disruption of ecosystem balance. For this reason, wastewater should never be discharged into the receiving environment without ensuring phosphorus removal within the limit values specified in the Water Pollution and Control Regulation of the Republic of Türkiye. This effective, phosphorus removal method is one of the natural filters found in abundance in Türkiye, can choose adsorptive phosphorus removal. This is aimed at natural filter materials sand, zeolite and vermiculite are sieved from each of them and materials remaining between sieves with a diameter of 1 and 2 cm are formed (50 cm3) homogeneous mixtures with a total volume of 150 cm³ and tested using chromatography columns with an inner diameter of 3 cm from a micro distance representing wetlands in the laboratory environment. In the experiments, synthetic wastewater solutions containing phosphorus at concentrations of 25, 50 and 100 ppm were transferred to the columns with a peristaltic pump at flow rates of 1 and 2 ml/min and samples were taken at 3rd, 6th, 12th, 24th and 48th hours and filtered, and pH, electrical conductivity (EC) and total phosphorus analyses were performed. According to the results obtained, the highest phosphorus removal efficiency was obtained as 99% in 3 hours at 2 ml/min flow rate and 50 ppm concentration, while the lowest efficiency was observed as 3% in 48 hours at 100 ppm and 2 ml/min conditions. It has been determined that the materials used in mixture form have higher performance than their pure forms.