Using Iron-Manganese Co-Oxide Filter Film to Remove Ammonium from Surface Water

An iron-manganese co-oxide filter film (MeO(x)) has been proven to be a good catalyst for the chemical catalytic oxidation of ammonium in groundwater. Compared with groundwater, surface water is generally used more widely and has characteristics that make ammonium removal more difficult. In this study, MeO(x) was used to remove ammonium from surface water. It indicated that the average ammonium removal efficiency of MeO(x) was greater than 90%, even though the water quality changed dramatically and the water temperature was reduced to about 6–8 °C. Then, through inactivating microorganisms, it showed that the removal capability of MeO(x) included both biological (accounted for about 41.05%) and chemical catalytic oxidation and chemical catalytic oxidation (accounted for about 58.95%). The investigation of the characterizations suggested that MeO(x) was formed by abiotic ways and the main elements on the surface of MeO(x) were distributed homogenously. The analysis of the catalytic oxidation process indicated that ammonia nitrogen may interact with MeO(x) as both ammonia molecules and ammonium ions and the active species of O(2) were possibly (•)O and O(2)(−).