Using Iron-Manganese Co-Oxide Filter Film to Remove Ammonium from Surface Water

Abstract

An iron-manganese co-oxide filter film (MeO _x) has been proven to be a good catalyst for the chemical catalytic oxidation of ammonium in groundwater. Compared with groundwater, surface water is generally used more widely and has characteristics that make ammonium removal more difficult. In this study, MeO _x was used to remove ammonium from surface water. It indicated that the average ammonium removal efficiency of MeO _x was greater than 90%, even though the water quality changed dramatically and the water temperature was reduced to about 6–8 °C. Then, through inactivating microorganisms, it showed that the removal capability of MeO _x included both biological (accounted for about 41.05%) and chemical catalytic oxidation and chemical catalytic oxidation (accounted for about 58.95%). The investigation of the characterizations suggested that MeO _x was formed by abiotic ways and the main elements on the surface of MeO _x were distributed homogenously. The analysis of the catalytic oxidation process indicated that ammonia nitrogen may interact with MeO _x as both ammonia molecules and ammonium ions and the active species of O ₂ were possibly ^•O and O ₂ ⁻.