Increasing phosphate sorption on barium slag by adding phosphogypsum for non-hazardous treatment

Abstract Barium slag (BS) is a waste residue in the barium salt industrial procedure. Due to its high leaching concentration of Ba2+, BS is classified as a kind of hazardous waste. Industrial waste phosphogypsum (PG) is effective to immobilize barium ion in BS owing to the slightly soluble sulfate included. In this study, two different proportions of PG were selected for mixing with BS to solidify soluble barium ion. The non-hazardous BS samples treated with the proportions of PG (BS-PG1, BS-PG3) were then functionally used for phosphate removal in solution. Batch experiments for removal of phosphate were performed to evaluate the adsorption efficiency of BS-PG1 and BS-PG3. The effect of various factors such as contact time, initial pH, and reaction temperature on sorption performance was investigated. BS-PG1 and BS-PG3 reached adsorption equilibrium in approximately 3h at the initial concentration of 15 mg/L, and BS-PG1 exhibited adsorption capacity of 12.47 mg P/g, higher than that of BS (11.49 mg P/g) under the condition of solid:liquid, 1g:1L, 25 °C, natural pH. The results show that the adsorption processes of phosphates ions onto both BS-PG1 and BS-PG3 fitted well with the pseudo-second-order kinetic model. The Langmuir isothermal model was considered as the appropriate equation for experimental data, showing a maximum adsorption capacity for phosphate up to 13.67 mg P/g and 11.59 mg P/g for BS-PG1 and BS-PG3. In comparison with other adsorbents, BS-PG1 and BS-PG3 could be considered as efficient materials for the removal of phosphate.