Biosorbent, a promising material for remediation of eutrophic environments: studies in microcosm.

Abstract

Eutrophication is considered a global environmental problem that causes economic and biodiversity loss. Together with excess phosphorus in some aquatic environments, there is the depletion of phosphate rock deposits, which can directly affect fertilizer production and therefore global food security. Thus, the present work aimed to study a new remediation technique for eutrophic environments that enables the recovery of these environments through phosphorus adsorption in sawdust, creating the possibility to apply the phosphorus-enriched material as an agricultural fertilizer. The study was conducted in 36 microcosm flasks with water and sediment samples from a eutrophic reservoir in Ibirité/MG. The experiment was carried out using 18 control flasks and 18 others as treatment, consisting of water and eutrophic environment sediment and, additionally, two bags, containing 10g of sawdust in each bag. The phosphorus adsorption on sawdust was more intense after 49days of immersion in the microcosm, and reductions of 90% in the concentration of reactive soluble phosphorus were observed in the water column of the microcosm treatment at 159days of the experiment. Based on the results, it can be concluded that, although the phosphorus concentration adsorbed on sawdust (16.2μgg-1) is considered low, the use of the biosorbent is a particularly promising technique for remediation of eutrophic environments, as well as the possible reuse of the adsorbed phosphorus as a fertilizer in agriculture.