Bed Adsorption Research Articles

Enhancing Desorption Performance of a Compressible Hybrid Structured Adsorbent via Localized Magnetic Induction Heating

AbstractStructured adsorbents have gained significant importance in gas separation applications due to their ability to fine‐tune mass and heat transfer and lower pressure drop across the bed. This study presents a ferromagnetic compressible hybrid structured adsorbent, allowing regeneration via magnetic induction heating. A compressible melamine sponge is coated with the CO2‐selective Ni‐MOF‐74 adsorbent and Fe3O4 as a ferromagnetic susceptor, capable of dissipating heat instantaneously in an alternating electromagnetic field. Taking advantage of these properties, the potential of rapid CO2 capture and thermal regeneration via magnetic induction swing adsorption is investigated. The successful incorporation of both ingredients on the melamine sponge is confirmed via SEM‐EDX and XRD analysis. Breakthrough experiments with a CO2/CH4‐mixture are performed. The selective property of Ni‐MOF‐74 toward CO2 is retained, with the composite showing a capacity of 1.89 mmol CO2/g. The compressible nature of the melamine sponge allowed for an improvement of 79% in the volumetric capacity of the adsorbent bed and a higher heating rate. In regard to regeneration, within 1 min of subjecting the structured composite to the alternating magnetic field, an efficient desorption (>90%) of CO2 is achieved. Overall, a ferromagnetic compressible hybrid structured adsorbent is presented for fast cyclic gas‐phase separation processes.

Performance optimization of adsorption hydrogen storage system via computation fluid dynamics and machine learning

Adsorption hydrogen storage paves an alternative way for reliable hydrogen storage. Here, impacts of dimensionless fin geometry configurations of the fin-tube metal hydride bed on the hydrogen storage performance are systematically investigated. Results show employing fins can strengthen the heat and mass transfer characteristics in the adsorbent bed and shorten the adsorption duration, especially at large fin numbers. Larger dimensionless fin thickness, height and width can lower the average bed temperature, which contributes to the adsorption kinetics and hydrogen fraction. At a small adsorption duration, larger dimensionless fin thickness, height and width improve the hydrogen storage amount due to obviously augmented hydrogen fraction. At a larger adsorption duration, there exist optimal dimensionless fin thickness, height and width leading to the maximum hydrogen storage amount originating from the compromise between the hydrogen fraction and adsorbent filled. Based on machine learning, the relationships between dimensionless fin geometry parameters and hydrogen storage amount have been obtained, and the optimal adsorption duration depended dimensionless fin configurations are obtained based on genetic algorithm. At a moderate adsorption duration, the optimized finned bed can significantly enhance the hydrogen storage amount. At the adsorption duration of 400 s, the hydrogen storage amount is augmented by 12.8%.

Structural Improvement and Numerical Simulation of a Perforated Distributor in an Adsorption Tower

AbstractA “closed” perforated plate distributor was proposed to improve the gas distribution in an industrial adsorption tower. Compared with the industrial perforated plate distributor, the designed distributor restricts the space for the disordered movement of gas under the perforated plate. The new distributor effectively converts the gas from the initial axial flow on the inlet section to the axial flow on the tower section to improve the gas uniformity. In addition, the gas velocity at the edge of the inlet cross section of the adsorbent bed is increased by opening holes on the bottom plate. The uniformity of gas distribution is further improved. The simulation method in this study and the distribution performance of the “closed” perforated plate distributor have been verified by experiments.

Development and experimental study of a small-scale adsorption cold storage prototype with stable and tunable output for off-grid cooling

Comfort cooling is a growing demand in summer outdoor activities and work. Adsorption cold storage (ACS) can achieve long-term cold storage without insulation measures and release cold without requiring electricity input. However, the challenges, including unstable cooling output and huge volume, hinder its wide applications. In this study, a small-scale silica gel-water ACS prototype for off-grid cooling is developed and experimentally investigated under typical summer conditions. The heat pipe structure is employed in the adsorption bed for heat transfer enhancement and volume reduction. Valve opening control is utilized for cooling output stabilization and adjustment. The experimental results show that the prototype achieves 6.36 h of cooling output with the outlet air temperature of 25 °C and the average cooling power of 107.67 W under the environment conditions of 35 °C and 40 % RH, indicating an effective cold storage capacity of 685 Wh and an operating efficiency of 0.30. Furthermore, the stable output air temperature can be flexibly adjusted from 19 °C to 27 °C while maintaining the inlet air temperature at 35 °C during the discharging process. Notably, the charging environment temperature shows a minimal influence on the cooling output performance. The prototype's design is novel and applicable for portable cooling in outdoor off-grid scenarios.

Limits of coefficient of performance of adsorption cooling cycle based on refrigerant’s type

This research work discusses how the thermodynamic properties of refrigerant constrain the upper limit of the coefficient of performance (COP) of adsorption cooling (AC) cycle. A mathematical model is developed based on the mass and energy balance across the adsorption bed and used to estimate the maximum COP. Langmuir model is used to derive the ideal COP. Besides, Carnot COP and exergy efficiency are derived to evaluate the adsorption cooling cycle further. These new parameters are applied to the available cycles in the open literature to assess how much room for improvement is still left in the adsorption technology based on the refrigerant type. Water, ammonia, methanol, ethanol, Butane, R134a, R32, CO2 and R1234ze are used in this study. The maximum cooling COP cannot exceed 1.0 for cooling applications and is always less than 2.0 for heat pumps. Results show that AC cycles using water or ethanol as refrigerants achieve the highest exergy efficiency. The AC cycle using water as an adsorbate and silica gel as an adsorbent has the highest relative COP, about 80 % at 85 °C regeneration temperature. In turn, CO2 exhibits the lowest one. This work is merely an attempt to save experimental effort and time by identifying the most suitable refrigerant based on its physical and thermal properties and the cycle operating conditions.

The study of active gas-gap heat switch using carbon nanotubes as the adsorption material

Heat switches are widely used in cryogenic systems and play an important role in controlling thermodynamic cycles and accelerating the cooling of cryogenic components, etc. Among them, the active gas-gap heat switch, as one of the mainstream heat switches, mostly uses activated carbon as the adsorbent. It desorbs/adsorbs helium by heating/cooling the activated carbon to realize the ON/OFF state. Normally, a short response time, which is related to the adsorption properties of the materials and the heating method of the adsorption bed, is desired. In order to further shorten the response time and improve the performance of the heat switch, a 3He active gas-gap heat switch using carbon nanotubes as the adsorption material was investigated. About 0.06 mW/K OFF-state conductance and 60 mW/K ON-state conductance were obtained at 4 K. The heat switch switched on within 35 s when 1.6 mW heating power was applied to the adsorption bed, and it took about 400 s at 4 K to reduce thermal conductance to 1/10 of ON-state conductance when the heating of the adsorption bed was stopped.

Experimental studies on the impact of adsorbent particle size on the adsorption chiller performance

Adsorption chiller dynamics and its effect on the performance are greatly influenced by the adsorbent particle size because they govern both the micro (intra-particle) and macro (inter-particle) heat and mass transfer resistances within the adsorber bed. The net effect of adsorbent particle size and shape on the overall cooling system performance is addressed here. Initial CFD analysis of columnar adsorber bed with silica gel + water as the working pair, assuming uniform spherical adsorbent, showed increased uptake capacity with smaller sized (0.23 mm radius) particles over bigger sized (0.8 mm radius) ones despite smaller vapor penetration depth of the former. Subsequently, the effect of adsorbent particle size and shape on the overall cooling system performance is investigated experimentally in a single-stage one-bed mode for RD 2060 (0.8 mm radius) and RD 3070 (0.23 mm radius) silica gel specimens. Though the smaller size of RD 3070 is favourable for the adsorption kinetics at the particle level, its non-spherical shape and highly non-uniform size distribution resulted in significantly lower permeability and thermal diffusivity of the packed adsorber bed, thus hindering the cyclic steady state throughput. For the same operating conditions, RD 2060 and RD 3070 yield a cooling capacity (CC) of 107 W and 22 W, respectively. Further, the coefficient of performance (COP) drops by 73% in the case of RD 3070. The present study indicates that the adsorber bed design must consider both the adsorbent size and shape, in addition to other system operational parameters to enhance performance indicators.

Modeling CO2 Adsorption in a Thin Discrete Packing.

Local dynamics of CO2 adsorption in a discrete packing contained in a thin tube was assessed by 3D modeling. Thin tube packed bed adsorbers are currently used over tube structures in thermochemical energy storage systems and atmospheric revitalization of confined spaces. Driven by the interplay between key factors such as the exothermicity and the fluid flow, the advective transport was found less effective than the diffusive one on the breakthrough trends of CO2 which displayed significant concentration gradients at both inter- and intraparticle scales. The lack of angular symmetry inside the particles by the reduction in resistance to mass transfer in the area of solid particles exposed to high velocities led to greater convective transports from the bulk of the gaseous phase to the pores. The result of the modeling agreed with the experimental data obtained at the exit of the adsorber, helping reduction in reliance on the empirical dispersion models used in the one-dimensional modeling.

Ethanol-enhanced wash-coating of zeolite 13X on microchannel walls for CO2 capture

Minimizing the energy demand for capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) from air and post-combustion sources is critical to mitigate the effects of climate change. Adsorbent-coated microchannels have been shown to significantly enhance the performance of CO2 capture systems. A novel single-dip wash-coating approach is developed in this work using silica nanoparticles and various base solvents to create a uniform and porous zeolite 13X adsorbent layer on cordierite microchannels. Extensive exploration of base solvents is undertaken to enhance adsorption performance and structural integrity, culminating in identifying a 70 % ethanol mixture as the most effective solvent. The coatings are characterized through a materials characterization suite and image analysis in conjunction with CO2 adsorption performance to determine the optimum adsorbent loading conditions. Equilibrium adsorption performance tests are performed for the coated samples in CO2 capture systems. The specific surface area (SSA) of the powdered 13X, initially measured at 662 m2/g, decreased to 553 m2/g in the coated form (utilizing a 20 % solid fraction with 70 % ethanol as the solvent), which is consistent with the observed adsorption performance results. The results underscore the scalability potential of these coated microchannels, presenting a promising alternative for CO2 separation systems to the conventional packed adsorbent beds.

An experimental comparison of thermal energy storage in directly and indirectly radiated adsorbent beds integrated with solar thermal collectors

AbstractAdsorbents heated using solar energy can be used to achieve thermal energy storage and sorption refrigeration with low environmental impacts. This research compares two different methods of heating adsorbents with solar energy to store thermal energy: (1) by exposing the adsorbents to incident light transmitted through a solar collector window, and (2) by heating a highly absorbing solar collector cover, and then transferring the heat from this solar absorber to adsorbents located beneath it. To carry out this comparison experiments are conducted for three cases of adsorbent beds using zeolite 13X and water as the adsorbent‐adsorbate pair. In the first case, the top of the adsorbent bed is a polycarbonate sheet, and the zeolites are heated directly by solar‐simulated light transmitted through this sheet. In the second case, a blackened aluminum sheet is placed beneath the polycarbonate sheet to generate heat by absorbing incident light. For the third case, the blackened aluminum absorber is placed directly on top of the zeolite beads and the absorber is isolated from the walls of the reactor to avoid heat losses. The outcomes reveal an energy storage density (ESD) of 43.6 kWh/m3 (63.4 Wh/kg) when light is directly incident onto the zeolite 13X and an ESD of 33.3 kWh/m3 (48.4 Wh/kg) when light is incident onto a blackened absorber plate that transfers heat to Zeolite beads residing beneath it. However, ESD values were improved to 48.9 kWh/m3 (71.0 Wh/kg) when the blackened absorber plate was thermally insulated from the walls of the adsorbent bed. These results demonstrate the importance of an optimal absorber arrangement in enhancing the adsorption process for the purpose of elevating energy storage densities.

Removal of Metal Ions from Wastewater Using Co‐integrated Superparamagnetic Nanoparticles

AbstractThe column performance of silica‐coated, amino‐functionalized, superparamagnetic nanoparticles co‐integrated with Cynodon dactylon and Murraya koenigii plant extracts for the removal of CuII ions was evaluated. The co‐integrated nanoparticles were used as sorbent materials in fixed‐bed column studies, and the effects of inlet concentration, adsorbent bed depth, and flow rate were analyzed. Breakthrough time was calculated for various CuII inlet concentrations, depths of the adsorbent bed, and volumetric flow rates. Models such as Thomas, Yoon‐Nelson, and the bed depth model were evaluated to determine the experimental fit. The maximum breakthrough time for CuII ions of 1200 min was attained for a CuII inlet concentration of 100 mg L–1, sorbent bed depth of 3 cm, and volumetric flow rate of 1 mL min–1.

The amine-functionalized alumina captures CO2 directly from the ambient air in the rotating adsorption bed

Global warming presents formidable challenges, prompting the exploration of Direct Air Capture (DAC) as a promising solution. This study employed the ultrasonic impregnation method to load polyethyleneimine (PEI) onto cost-effective millimeter-sized spherical γ-Al2O3 microspheres, thereby preparing an efficient amine-modified adsorbent. Characterization reveals a uniform dispersion of PEI, resulting in an adsorbent with an effective pore structure, enhancing CO2 diffusion. The adsorption experiment combines DAC with high gravity technology, best conditions at a PEI load of 16.37%, high gravity factor of 2.67, and gas flow rate of 30 L/min. Under these conditions, an impressive adsorption capacity of 41.75 mg/g was achieved, marking an increase of 12.11 mg/g compared to the traditional fixed-bed method. The amine efficiency also reaches 0.25. The Freundlich model outperforms the Langmuir model in fitting isotherm curves, suggesting that the experimental data align with the characteristics of a heterogeneous surface and multilayer adsorption. The fitting results of kinetic models further show that RAB's adsorption rate constant has a significantly better fitting value compared to traditional fixed bed methods. The research provides valuable insights for the application and development of DAC technology, enabling new possibilities for future carbon capture and emission reduction efforts.

Comparing different versions of the Yoon-Nelson model in describing organic micropollutant adsorption within fixed bed adsorbers.

The Yoon-Nelson model serves as a widely used tool for describing the breakthrough behavior of organic micropollutants within fixed bed adsorbers. This study aims to augment its modeling efficacy through two proposed refinements found in the literature: a logarithmic transformation and the incorporation of steric hindrance effects. We systematically evaluated the original Yoon-Nelson model alongside the modified versions, using breakthrough data associated with micropollutant adsorption on solid materials. Three distinct cases were scrutinized: (1) caffeine adsorption on activated carbon; (2) tetracycline adsorption on hierarchical porous carbon; and (3) diclofenac adsorption on organoclay. While all three models demonstrated comparable performance with highly symmetric breakthrough data in case 1, their efficacy diverged significantly when confronted with strongly asymmetric breakthrough data in cases 2 and 3. The original Yoon-Nelson model and the logarithmically modified version fell short in accurately representing these intricate breakthrough curves. In contrast, the version incorporating steric hindrance effects showcased substantial accuracy, outperforming other models in capturing the complexities of asymmetric breakthrough data. This advancement markedly enhances the modeling accuracy and versatility of the Yoon-Nelson model, particularly in assessing the dynamic behavior of organic micropollutants within fixed bed adsorbers.

Reactive transport in open-channel flows with bed adsorption and desorption

Researches on the solute dispersion with boundary adsorption and desorption are common in various fields, such as chemistry, biology, and hydraulics. However, the Laplace transform, as a method available for the transient transport with coupled processes of adsorption–desorption at boundaries, is complicated to apply. Recently, Jiang et al. (2022) proposed a much simpler analytical method by extending the classic framework of separation of variables to derive solutions of concentration moments for tube flows, which is valid for the entire range of the reactive transport process. Here we apply this simple approach to solute transport in open-channel flows with bed adsorption and desorption. We obtain analytical solutions capturing exactly the transient statistics for the solute cloud as compared to the numerical simulations, regarding the variation of the cloud mass, the motions of the centroid of the cloud, and the scattering of the cloud, respectively. We further investigate the effect of adsorption–desorption on the dispersion process and the influence of initial conditions on the non-uniformity of dispersion characteristics over the cross-section before the Taylor dispersion regime. Through comparisons with that of tube flows, we find that the distribution of solute mass, the drift, and the dispersivity for open channel flows change more slowly with time and the response time is longer.

The effect of adsorption bed design optimization on COP and SCP system: Comparison for three couples’ zeolite/water, silica gel/water and NH2-MIL125/water

In this study, three-dimensional numerical models of cylindrical adsorber were developed for vertical and horizontal fins. This adsorber contains fins filled with two traditional adsorbents (Zeolite and Silica gel) and a new adsorbent (NH2-MIL125). The height of the adsorber is adjusted to have the same amount of the adsorbent for the different number of fins and adsorber design. The discretization of the coupled equations in the system is done by the finite volume method (FVM). The effect of the number and geometry of fins on the desorption kinetic and the specific cooling capacity are investigated for each one. The results showed that NH2-MIL125 gives the best coefficient of performance (COP) and the highest Specific Cooling Power (SCP) comparing to the traditional adsorbents. For the vertical fins, results showed a low impact of the fins number and design of the different adsorbents (Zeolite, silica and NH2-MIL125). This low impact is due to the configuration of the adsorbent bed. The factor form F is found to be correlated to the time cycle and the heat transfer. F has an optimal value of 0.4 when the number of fins is 15. The coefficient of performance (COP) shown to be independent from the fins number. The Specific Cooling Power (SCP) is affected by the fins number of the three adsorbents. NH2-MIL125 is giving the best result of SCP reaching a value of 80 Wh/kg. Considering the obtained results, the NH2-MIL125 is a promising adsorbent for the adsorption cooling system.

Desorbent swing adsorption process using ethylene to separate propane and propylene under isobaric conditions

The separation of olefin and paraffin using adsorption technology remains a significant challenge. This study proposes a novel desorbent swing adsorption (DSA) process using an olefin desorbent with a weaker adsorption affinity (C2: ethylene) to separate a paraffin/olefin mixture with a higher adsorption affinity (C3s: propane and propylene) under isobaric conditions, which is the reverse concept of using a desorbent with a stronger affinity in conventional DSA systems. The proposed DSA process effectively separates the C3 mixture because the deteriorating effects caused by the desorbent is minimized. Based on sequential breakthrough experiments with zeolite 13X DSA using ethylene, the efficient separation of a propylene dehydrogenation product (propane:propylene = 60:40 vol%) to produce polymer-grade propylene is achieved. It is confirmed that ethylene desorbent stream pushes out the adsorbed propylene and regenerates the adsorption bed without changing the pressure. The desorption step plays a key role in the separation performance of the proposed DSA process because the regenerated bed offers favorable conditions when filled with the weaker desorbent after the desorption step. The flowrate of the desorbent strongly affects the efficiency of propylene desorption. After validating the dynamic mathematical model using the experimental results, a two-bed DSA process using a six-step sequence that includes rinse export/import and idle steps is shown to achieve a propylene purity above 99.999 % (desorbent-free basis) with a recovery of 99.39 %, a productivity of 4.21 mol∙kg−1∙hr−1, and an ethylene usage of 7.59 mol∙kg−1∙hr−1. This study offers important insights into the development of adsorptive separation designs for olefin/paraffin separation.

Towards enhanced heat and mass exchange in adsorption systems: The role of AutoML and fluidized bed innovations

The selection of optimal design and the most efficient operational parameters for energy devices constitute a priority task for sustainable development and increasing energy efficiency within the net-zero emissions strategy. This is particularly important in adsorption cooling and desalination systems with poor performance due to unfavourable heat transfer conditions in conventional packed beds of adsorption chillers (ACs). Therefore, looking for additional ways of performance improvement is still challenging, especially covering different design variants and operational strategies. The existing complex, time-consuming and costly analytical, numerical and experimental methods, usually focused on a specific design and operating parameters of conventional packed adsorption beds, cannot tackle these comprehensive problems. Since artificial intelligence (AI) based models are considered tools that sometimes may overcome the shortcomings of the programmed computing approach and the experimental procedures, the paper introduces automated machine learning (AutoML) as a general approach for the design and optimization study of adsorption cooling and desalination systems. The double-effect, i.e. specific cooling capacity (SCP) and specific daily water production (SDWP) of various adsorption chillers (ACs) operating in large-, pilot- and small-scale adsorption cooling and desalination systems, is considered in the study. The paper also presents a novel big data optimization procedure for selecting the best operating and design strategy in adsorption cooling and desalination technology. Finally, a new concept of fluidized bed-type application in adsorption chillers is proposed, which allows for enhancing the performance of ACs.The presented approach can be referred to as a complementary design technique in adsorption cooling and desalination systems, besides the existing complex analytical and time-consuming numerical methods and expensive experiments.

Density Functional Theory Investigation of Cu, Ni, and Ag Inclusion in ZSM-5 to Study Dihydrogen Binding for Cryogenic Molecular Sieve Bed Adsorber in Nuclear Fusion Systems

A computational investigation of Cu-, Ni-, and Ag-introduced ZSM-5 as potential hydrogen storage materials for nuclear fusion energy systems is performed. Among the 24 distinct tetrahedral sites of the monoclinic phase of ZSM-5, systematic periodic density functional theory (DFT) computations have been carried out on 15 experimentally identified T sites that show clear Al site preference and stability in high Si ZSM-5. Adsorption energies estimated from DFT studies have revealed that the T sites in the sinusoidal channels T4 and T10 are the most stable for including all three metal ions. Hence, these should also be considered as potential active sites for dihydrogen binding investigations in addition to the common T12 site in the intersection. The average hydrogen binding energies at these representative T sites were −79 to −45 kJ/mol, which correlates well with both the metal-H2 distance and H-H bond elongation distance. The computed hydrogen bond stretching frequency values were in the 3300 to 3755 cm−1 range upon adsorption of H2 onto the Ni, Cu, and Ag, indicating Kubas-type dihydrogen complex formation. The evidence for dihydrogen binding was also obtained from investigating the σ donation and back donation between the metal ion valence orbitals and the H2σ, H2σ* orbitals through projected density of states and natural bond order analysis. Our analysis indicates that Ni is better stabilized in the framework sites and is considered a potential candidate for dihydrogen binding.

Implementation of Fluidized Bed Concept to Improve Heat Transfer in Ecological Adsorption Cooling and Desalination Systems

Sustainable development policy focuses on reducing the carbon footprint generated by the global industry and energy sector. Replacing conventional energy sources with environmentally friendly ones requires advanced research to increase energy efficiency and reduce the instability and intermittence of renewable sources. Moreover, adsorption chillers are an opportunity to introduce net-zero emission technologies to the refrigeration, air-conditioning, and desalination industries. Adsorption devices could be popularized if a method of effective heat transfer in the volume of the adsorption bed is developed. The innovative concept of introducing fluidized beds into the adsorption system can achieve the most promising results in improving energy efficiency. To confirm the adopted assumption, heat transfer coefficient calculations for the packed and fluidized bed were carried out in this paper based on experimental tests and literature data. The empirical research aims to extend the fundamental knowledge in the implementation of fluidization under low-pressure conditions, characteristic of the adsorption systems’ working cycle. Experiments were conducted on a unique test stand equipped with the Intensified Heat Transfer Adsorption Bed (IHTAB) reactor prototype. Five adsorption bed samples were analyzed. The reference sample consisted only of silica gel, and the subsequent ones contained aluminum or carbon nanotubes with 5 and 10% additions. In the case of samples with admixtures, the fluidized state increased the heat transfer coefficient on average from approx. 36.9 W/m2 K to approx. 245.4 W/m2 K.

Study on the dynamic adsorption and recycling of phosphorus by Fe–Mn oxide/mulberry branch biochar composite adsorbent

In this study, the Fe–Mn oxide/mulberry stem biochar composite adsorbent (FM-MBC) was prepared and fully characterized by SEM-EDS, XRD, BET, and XPS. The solution pH (3.0, 4.5, and 6.0), initial concentration of phosphorus (10, 20, and 30 mg L−1), adsorbent bed height (2, 3, and 4 cm), and solution flow rate (1, 2, and 3 mL min−1) were investigated to analyze the breakthrough curves. The results showed that the breakthrough time was shortened as the initial phosphorus concentration, the flow rate increased and the bed height decreased. Higher initial phosphorus concentrations, flow rates, and lower bed heights, led to a faster breakthrough of phosphate ions in the FM-MBC adsorbent. Additionally, it was observed that increasing the pH value was not conducive to the adsorption of phosphorus by the FM-MBC adsorbent. Dynamic adsorption data were fitted to four models (Yoon-Nelson, Thomas, Adams-Bohart, and Bed Depth Service Time), and the R2 values of the Thomas and Yoon-Nelson models exhibited minimal variation, suggesting that the dynamic adsorption process of FM-MBC was rather intricate. The saturated fixed-bed column (including FM-MBC) was regenerated with NaOH or HCl, and it was found that a 0.1 mol L−1 NaOH solution had the best regeneration effect. XRD analysis showed that the reaction product between the FM-MBC composite and phosphate anions was Fe3(PO4)2·H2O. Moreover, the experimental results that FM-MBC can successfully be used to remove phosphorus from actual wastewater.