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Detection of phosphate adsorption onto coal humic acids

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:7086087

Because of their acid-base, sorption, and chelation properties, coal humic acids have some potential applications in treating some of the pollutants arising from the mining, combustion, and conversion of coal and from stack gas scrubber effluents. This thesis is part of a research program designed to determine the interaction of coal humic acids with a variety of species found in wastewaters. The uptake of orthophosphates and polyphosphates by solid coal humic acids was examined. The preparation and purification of coal humic acids and iron humates are described. Details are given for the difficult analysis of phosphates in the presence of humic substances. It was found that coal humic acids adsorb phosphates very poorly. Since these materials effectively remove heavy metal ions from water the possibility is raised of selectively removing dangerous heavy metal ions while leaving nutrient phosphate in the water for fertilizer in water used for land reclamation or crop irrigation.

Research Organization:
Missouri Univ., Columbia (USA). Dept. of Chemistry
OSTI ID:
7086087
Report Number(s):
PB-267998
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English