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Removal and recovery of phosphate anion as struvite from wastewater

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Abstract

Phosphorus is one of the controlling factors for water eutrophication, but it is also an essential nutrient for all living organisms and non-renewable resource. A feasibility study on PO43− recovery and conversion to struvite (NH4MgPO4·6H2O), a slow-release fertilizer, has been reported. However, the fertilizer efficiency of struvite is determined by its purity, which depends on the forms and molar ratio of reactants under different initial pH of the solution. Laboratory-scale experiments were carried out to determine the optimum initial pH of the solution and molar ratio of reactants on struvite crystallization. Meanwhile, the purity of the synthesis product struvite was analyzed. The experiment results revealed the optimum initial pH being 10 with molar ratio of PO43−:Mg2+:NH4+= 1:1.3:1 and 1:2:5 for struvite formation, which the removal of the PO43−, Mg2+ and NH4+ being 98, 92, 95% and 99.5, 85, 90%, respectively. A chemical equilibrium model (Visual Minteq) corroborated the experimental results. Thus, the possibility of synthesizing struvite from simulated wastewater utilizing the phosphate ions (PO43−) was confirmed.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51568023). Additionally, the authors would like to express their sincere appreciation to the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and suggestions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Jiangxi Key Laboratory of Mining and Metallurgy Environmental Pollution Control, Jiangxi University of Science and Technology, 156 Kejia Ave., Ganzhou, 341000, Jiangxi, People’s Republic of China

    Yunnen Chen, Chen Liu, Lin Guo, Jinxia Nie & Chang Li

Authors
  1. Yunnen Chen
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  2. Chen Liu
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  3. Lin Guo
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  4. Jinxia Nie
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  5. Chang Li
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Contributions

YC presented the original idea for the study, carried out the experiment, analyzed the data and drafted the manuscript. CL, LG and CL have participated in the supplementary experiment. JN modified the manuscript. All authors have read the manuscript and agreed to submission.

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Correspondence to Yunnen Chen.

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Chen, Y., Liu, C., Guo, L. et al. Removal and recovery of phosphate anion as struvite from wastewater. Clean Techn Environ Policy 20, 2375–2380 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10098-018-1607-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10098-018-1607-2

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