Recovery of phosphate from municipal wastewater as calcium phosphate and its subsequent application for the treatment of acid mine drainage

Here, the co-managment of municipal wastewater (MWW) and acid mine drainage (AMD) is proposed, where recovered low-value phosphorus from MWW used for treatment AMD. Specifically, was treated using calcium hydroxide (Ca(OH)2), a low-cost readily available material, with ammonia content being greatly reduced (89%) through stripping phosphates practically eliminated (>99%). The in form phosphate (Ca3(PO4)2), then AMD coal mining. Metals contained scavenged phosphorous, forming new minerals, increased alkalinity led to their precipitation. optimum conditions were 90 min contact time, 10 g L−1 Ca3(PO4)2 dosage, room temperature ambient pH. Under these conditions, AMD's metal (Fe, Mn, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, Al, Zn) depleted (>99% removal) sulphate (SO₄) (90.6%). Results underpinned by FTIR, FIB/SEM, EDS/SEM, XRF, XRD. Overall, this indirect co-treatment method holds great promise sustainable management both matrices can provide simple effective solution co-management, particularly developing world context it could also help advancing UN's development goals.