A significant factor for eutrophication is the excessive discharge of ammonia nitrogen. Unfortunately, traditional methods to remove ammonia nitrogen are ineffective when facing gradually strict rules. Recently, adsorption has gained interest from scholars due to its efficiency and safety in ammonia nitrogen treatment. In this study, a novel biochar, modified with magnetic iron, was synthesized through co-precipitation, which performed well in ammonia nitrogen removal. The maximum adsorption amount at 293 K of the composite that was synthesized at 80℃(MB80) was 17.52 mg·g-1. Meanwhile, the simulation results displayed a good fitting with the pseudo second order model and Langmuir model. Additionally, the adsorption mechanism could be attributed to electrostatic adsorption, porous filling, ion exchange, and hydrogen bonding. Noticeably, MB80 maintained a good performance after 5 cycles, with desirable adsorption amount of 3.18 mg·g-1. This study aimed to provide an efficient method to treat ammonia nitrogen as well as a new way to dispose of municipal sludge.
Keywords: adsorption; ammonia nitrogen; biochar; magnetic iron; sludge.