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Efficient Removal of Phosphate, Nitrate, and Ammonia from Wastewater Using Unmodified Woodchip Biochar

Amani Haddouk, Ismail Trabelsi, Chedly Tizaoui Orcid Logo, Mohamed Ali Wahab

Water, Volume: 18, Issue: 2, Start page: 211

Swansea University Author: Chedly Tizaoui Orcid Logo

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DOI (Published version): 10.3390/w18020211

Abstract

Excess nutrients in wastewater pose significant environmental risks, highlighting the need for low-cost treatment strategies that enable their removal. This study evaluated the adsorption capacity of woodchip biochar, a widely available waste material, for phosphate (PO43−), nitrate (NO3−), and ammo...

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Published in: Water
ISSN: 2073-4441
Published: MDPI AG 2026
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URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa71332
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spelling 2026-02-05T12:21:40.4665342 v2 71332 2026-01-28 Efficient Removal of Phosphate, Nitrate, and Ammonia from Wastewater Using Unmodified Woodchip Biochar 4b34a0286d3c0b0b081518fa6987031d 0000-0003-2159-7881 Chedly Tizaoui Chedly Tizaoui true false 2026-01-28 EAAS Excess nutrients in wastewater pose significant environmental risks, highlighting the need for low-cost treatment strategies that enable their removal. This study evaluated the adsorption capacity of woodchip biochar, a widely available waste material, for phosphate (PO43−), nitrate (NO3−), and ammonium (NH4+) in raw and secondary-treated wastewater, and compared the results against those obtained using synthetic solutions. Approach to equilibrium was reached quicker for NH4+ (≈20 min) than for NO3− and PO43− (≈40 min), with NH4+ removal reaching up to 80% at a dosage of 20 g/L. Nutrient adsorption kinetics were best described by the pseudo-second-order model for the anionic species (NO3− and PO43−), while the pseudo-first-order model provided a better fit for the cationic species NH4+. The Freundlich isotherm provided a good fit to the equilibrium data for all species, indicating the presence of heterogeneous adsorption sites. SEM–EDX and FTIR analyses confirmed nutrient adsorption onto the biochar surface and highlighted the involvement of carboxyl and hydroxyl functional groups, with FTIR showing the greatest spectral changes for NH4+. Adsorption tests using secondary-treated wastewater showed high removal efficiencies (100% PO43−, 25.4% NO3−, 89.5% NH4+), whereas performance in raw wastewater was poor (maximum 32% NH4+). Overall, woodchip biochar demonstrates strong potential as a tertiary treatment material, and its nutrient-saturated form may be reused as fertiliser, supporting nutrient recovery within a circular-economy framework. Journal Article Water 18 2 211 MDPI AG 2073-4441 woodchips biochar; adsorption; nutrients; wastewater; sustainability; environment 13 1 2026 2026-01-13 10.3390/w18020211 COLLEGE NANME Engineering and Applied Sciences School COLLEGE CODE EAAS Swansea University Other This work is part of Amani Haddouk’s doctoral thesis, funded by the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Tunisia 2026-02-05T12:21:40.4665342 2026-01-28T12:57:43.8405833 Faculty of Science and Engineering School of Engineering and Applied Sciences - Chemical Engineering Amani Haddouk 1 Ismail Trabelsi 2 Chedly Tizaoui 0000-0003-2159-7881 3 Mohamed Ali Wahab 4 71332__36127__95b266072dfd43578024c8044cb163b1.pdf water-18-00211-v2.pdf 2026-01-28T13:02:46.2578532 Output 4925249 application/pdf Version of Record true © 2026 by the authors. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license. true eng https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
title Efficient Removal of Phosphate, Nitrate, and Ammonia from Wastewater Using Unmodified Woodchip Biochar
spellingShingle Efficient Removal of Phosphate, Nitrate, and Ammonia from Wastewater Using Unmodified Woodchip Biochar
Chedly Tizaoui
title_short Efficient Removal of Phosphate, Nitrate, and Ammonia from Wastewater Using Unmodified Woodchip Biochar
title_full Efficient Removal of Phosphate, Nitrate, and Ammonia from Wastewater Using Unmodified Woodchip Biochar
title_fullStr Efficient Removal of Phosphate, Nitrate, and Ammonia from Wastewater Using Unmodified Woodchip Biochar
title_full_unstemmed Efficient Removal of Phosphate, Nitrate, and Ammonia from Wastewater Using Unmodified Woodchip Biochar
title_sort Efficient Removal of Phosphate, Nitrate, and Ammonia from Wastewater Using Unmodified Woodchip Biochar
author_id_str_mv 4b34a0286d3c0b0b081518fa6987031d
author_id_fullname_str_mv 4b34a0286d3c0b0b081518fa6987031d_***_Chedly Tizaoui
author Chedly Tizaoui
author2 Amani Haddouk
Ismail Trabelsi
Chedly Tizaoui
Mohamed Ali Wahab
format Journal article
container_title Water
container_volume 18
container_issue 2
container_start_page 211
publishDate 2026
institution Swansea University
issn 2073-4441
doi_str_mv 10.3390/w18020211
publisher MDPI AG
college_str Faculty of Science and Engineering
hierarchytype
hierarchy_top_id facultyofscienceandengineering
hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Science and Engineering
hierarchy_parent_id facultyofscienceandengineering
hierarchy_parent_title Faculty of Science and Engineering
department_str School of Engineering and Applied Sciences - Chemical Engineering{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Science and Engineering{{{_:::_}}}School of Engineering and Applied Sciences - Chemical Engineering
document_store_str 1
active_str 0
description Excess nutrients in wastewater pose significant environmental risks, highlighting the need for low-cost treatment strategies that enable their removal. This study evaluated the adsorption capacity of woodchip biochar, a widely available waste material, for phosphate (PO43−), nitrate (NO3−), and ammonium (NH4+) in raw and secondary-treated wastewater, and compared the results against those obtained using synthetic solutions. Approach to equilibrium was reached quicker for NH4+ (≈20 min) than for NO3− and PO43− (≈40 min), with NH4+ removal reaching up to 80% at a dosage of 20 g/L. Nutrient adsorption kinetics were best described by the pseudo-second-order model for the anionic species (NO3− and PO43−), while the pseudo-first-order model provided a better fit for the cationic species NH4+. The Freundlich isotherm provided a good fit to the equilibrium data for all species, indicating the presence of heterogeneous adsorption sites. SEM–EDX and FTIR analyses confirmed nutrient adsorption onto the biochar surface and highlighted the involvement of carboxyl and hydroxyl functional groups, with FTIR showing the greatest spectral changes for NH4+. Adsorption tests using secondary-treated wastewater showed high removal efficiencies (100% PO43−, 25.4% NO3−, 89.5% NH4+), whereas performance in raw wastewater was poor (maximum 32% NH4+). Overall, woodchip biochar demonstrates strong potential as a tertiary treatment material, and its nutrient-saturated form may be reused as fertiliser, supporting nutrient recovery within a circular-economy framework.
published_date 2026-01-13T05:35:03Z
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