The algal blooms in stagnant streams and lakes have caused many problems. Excessive algae leads to disturbance of ecosystem and overload of water treatment processes. Therefore, phosphorus(P), source of algal blooms, should be controlled. In this study, a filtration trench has been developed to convert dissolved phosphorus into hydroxyapatite(HAP) so that it could be crystallized on the surface of ‘phosphorus removal granular material’; and residual particulate phosphorus could be removed by additional precipitation and filtration. The front and rear parts of filtration trench consisted of ‘phosphorus removal granular material contact bed’ and ‘limestone filtration bed’, respectively. As a result of the column test using phosphorus removal granular material and limestone serially, PO4-P was removed more than 90% when EBCT(empty bed contact time) of the contact bed was over 20 minutes; and T-P represented 60% of removal efficiency when total EBCT was over 1.5 hours. The results of column tests to figure out the sedimentation characteristics showed that more than 90% of particulate phosphorus could be removed within 24 hours. It was necessary to optimize the filtration part in order to increase removal efficiency of T-P additionally. Also, it was confirmed through the simulation of Visual MINTEQ that most of particulate phosphorus in the column tests is the form of HAP. Based on the results of the study, it could be suggested that the design parameters are over 0.5 hour of EBCT for phosphorus removal granular material contact bed and over 1.5 hours of EBCT for limestone filtration bed.

One of the major sources causing eutrophication and algal blooms of lakes or streams is phosphorus which comes from point and nonpoint pollution sources. HAP (hydroxyapatite) crystallization using granular alkaline materials can achieve the decrease of phosphorus load from wastewater treatment plants and nonpoint pollution control facilities. In order to induce HAP crystal formation, continuous supply of calcium and hydroxyl ions is required. In this research, considering HAP crystallization, several types of lime-based granular alkaline materials were prepared, and the elution characteristics of calcium and hydroxyl ions of each were analyzed. Also, column tests were performed to verify phosphorus removal efficiencies of granular alkaline materials. Material_1 (gypsum+cement mixed material) achieved the highest pH values in the column tests consistently, also, Material_2 (gypsum+slag mixed material) and Material_3 (calcined limestone material) achieved over pH 9.0 for 240 hours (10 days) and proved the efficiencies of long-term ion supplier for HAP crystallization. In the column tests using Material_3, considerable pH increase and phosphorus removal were carried out according to each linear velocity and filtration depth. T-P removal efficiencies were 87.0, 84.0, 68.0% and those of PO4-P 100.0, 97.0, 80.0% for linear velocity of 1.0, 2.5, 5.0 m/hr respectively. Based on the column test results, the applicability of phosphorus removal processes for small-scale wastewater treatment plants and nonpoint pollution control facilities was found out.

In the coagulation/sedimentation (C/S) process of the water treatment process, the inflow of massive algal bloom causes many problems including fouling of filter media. This study was conducted to find out the way to remove the algae’s harmful effects by addition of pre-treatment prior to C/S process. Many Jar-tests were conducted such as ① ACF (Algae Coagulation·Flotation) process using natural algae coagulant (Water Health®), ② ACF + C/S process and ③ C/S process with a variety of conditions using cultured algae. The average values of turbidity were ① 0.42 NTU for ACF process, ② 0.13 NTU for ACF + C/S process and ③ 0.25 NTU for C/S process. It was shown that the treatment efficiency of ACF process could get low turbidity results, and ACF + C/S process could achieve more efficient results than those of C/S process. Any negative effects of ACF process to the efficiency of C/S process were not observed in ACF + C/S process. In order to reduce the unfavorable effects of algae, it was found out that the introduction of ACF process in the forms of ① ACF or ② ACF + C/S could be one of the effective and alternative solutions.