Improving iron oxide-based adsorbents for phosphate recovery from surface water using Mössbauer spectroscopy as main analytical tool

This thesis focuses on recycling resources while preserving water quality and availability. This concept is at the basis of a healthy and sustainable society yet works needs to be done. Water scarcity will be a growing challenge that humanity will have to face in the coming years, due to poor resource management and the climate change crisis. Waters cover 70 % of our planet, but only 3 % of it is freshwater, and only 1 % is easily accessible. Already more than 2 billion people live in water-stressed countries.
Moreover, in some ways, this thesis will show how there is a thin line between resources and waste, nutrients and pollutants, impurity and added value. This thin line is both defined by our everyday life choices, the name we give to things, and their related connotation....