Simultaneous recovery of ammonium and phosphate from aqueous solutions using Mg/Fe modified NaY zeolite: Integration between adsorption and struvite precipitation

•An absorbent was synthesized via an uncomplicated Mg/Fe coprecipitation process.•The absorbent had a high capacity for simultaneous ammonium and phosphate recovery.•The synergetic physical–chemical recovery mechanism was systematically elucidated.•Graph grayscale analysis of SEM images was used to evaluate absorbent properties.