A BALANCE ANALYSIS OF PHOSPHORUS ELIMINATION BY ARTIFICIAL CALCITE PRECIPITATION IN A STRATIFIED HARDWATER LAKE

Elimination of phosphorus was achieved by artificial calcite precipita tion in the Dagowsee, a stratified eutrophic hardwater lake. The artif icial calcite precipitation was induced by hypolimnetic injection of C aO in enclosures during the summer stagnation. The hypolimnetic inject ion of CaO was combined with aeration for 1 day. The coprecipitation o f phosphorus with calcite was shown by energy dispersive X-ray analysi s. The content of phosphorus in the calcite was about 0.1 wt%. Phospho rus was homogeneously distributed throughout the precipitated calcite and throughout the calcinated particles of water and sediment. The pho sphorus coprecipitation efficiency was calculated from the ratio of th e decrease of phosphorus to decrease of calcium in the water according to the House's coprecipitation model. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Sci ence Ltd.