In discussing nutrient removal from wastewater, phosphorus and nitrogen are the key nutrients as they cause "pollution" of the receiving water body. Although phosphate species are not always deleterious, their removal from surface waters is generally necessary to avoid problems, such as eutrophication, particularly near the urban areas. The usual methods of treatment are either biological or physicochemical by sedimentation. This paper studies the removal of phosphate species by flotation.The phosphate solutions were prepared artificially by added certain quantities of orthophosphate in distilled water. Amine was used as collector. The effect of pH, flotation time as well as collector concentration were studied. The results showed that the removal is feasible approaching or reaching 100% in some cases. Based on the experimental results foam fractionation is proposed as a possible mechanism of orthophosphate removal from aqueous solution.
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