Enhancement of Nitrate Removal Ability in Aqueous Phase Using Ulmus davidiana Bark for Preventing Eutrophication

Abstract In the present work, the improvement of nitrate removal ability was investigated to resolve a eutrophication problem by using Ulmus davidiana ( U. davidiana ) bark generated from Gangwon province. When the initial pH of aqueous solution was ad-justed to 3.5 in batch experiments, the removal efficiencies for 10 and 20 mg/L nitrate increased up to 43 and 37%, respectively. In addition, when U. davidiana bark of 1.0 g/100 mL was used for 8 h, the removal efficiency for 20 mg/L nitrate was 68%. Moreover, when reforming reaction of U. davidiana bark was performed under oxyfluorination conditions, the optimal ratio of partial pressure between fluorine and oxygen was 1 : 9 for an enhanced nitrate adsorption amount. When reformed U. davidiana bark was used for 8 h operation under the optimal oxyfluorination condition, removal efficiencies for 10, 20 and 40 mg/L nitrate were found to be 96, 95 and 59%, respectively. Collectively, these results suggest that our water treatment technology can be effectively utilized to treat high concentrations of nitrate in water bodies.