Phosphate precipitation with ferrous iron

Of a number of methods available for phosphate removal from waste water, chemical precipitation (often called coagulation) using aluminum, ferric iron, ferrous iron and lime is considered to be the most economical. The objective of the present study has been two-fold: To evaluate the effects of pH and reactant concentration on the rate and efficiency of phosphate removal from synthetic and secondary effluent wastewaters and on the nature of the precipitates formed; and to compare the data on the Fe(II)-phosphate precipitation system with the available data for Fe(III)- and Al(III)-phosphate systems. Most of the experiments in the study were conducted on pure orthophosphate solutions and in the absence of dissolved oxygen. Only a limited number of tests were made of the use of ferrous iron for orthophosphate removal from wastewaters containing dissolved oxygen.