Pretreatment of high strength ammonia removal from rare-earth wastewater by magnesium ammonium phosphate (MAP) precipitation

Ammonia is one of the most important contaminants affecting the quality of water environment. Magnesium ammonium phosphate (MgNH4PO4 center dot 6H(2)O), which is a slow releasing fertilizer, is one possible way to remove high strength ammonia from the wastewater. The wastewater is collected from the effluent of extraction of rare earth elements factory, the study investigate the influence of pH, magnesium and phosphate dosing molar ratio and reaction time for ammonia removal rate. The results show that: when the pH = 9.2, n (Mg): n (N): n (P) = 2.2:1:2, reaction time t = 20min, ammonia concentration of the wastewater from 4420mg / L down to 1440mg / L, ammonia nitrogen removal rate can reach 67%, the remaining TP = 0.9mg / L; higher Ca2+ concentration will affect the MAP precipitation for removing ammonia, but it help to reduce total phosphorus concentrations of effluent; it is not the longer reaction time the better removal rate, because the MAP-formation will destroy with longer reaction time.