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Phosphorus recovery by struvite from anaerobic co-digestion effluents during residual biomass treatment

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Abstract

The residual biomass from agricultural activities has macronutrients and micronutrients, which could be recovered after an anaerobic co-digestion process. In this study, the effluents of the anaerobic co-digestion, which use coffee, cocoa mucilage, and pig manure, were evaluated to produce struvite. The effects of the Ca2+/PO43− ratio on the purity of struvite precipitation from synthetic and anaerobic co-digestion effluents was evaluated. The influence of pH, Ca2+/PO43− ration, and stirring speed on the efficiency of PO43− recovery and the removal of Ca2+ was studied. The phosphorus recovery increased from 85 to 99% with pH change from 8.5 to 10. The lowest removal of Ca2+ was 6.6% in the anaerobic effluent with the a ratio Ca2+/PO43− of 0.3:1 at pH 10. Struvite precipitate with high purity was obtained when the molar ratio was less than 0.3:1, and the pH was fixed to 10. X-ray diffraction analysis and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) confirmed the orthorhombic phases and morphology typical of struvite, respectively. In addition, the presence of K as a macronutrient and Ca and Na as micronutrients increases the viability of the struvite as fertilizer. The high recovery of phosphorus as struvite indicates it could be an alternative for nutrient recovery and utilization of these effluents.

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Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge the financial support from Colciencias (Administrative Department of Science, Technology, and Innovation)—project number FP44842-38-2017, contract 038-2017.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Facultad de Química Ambiental, Universidad Santo Tomás, Carrera 27 180-395, Floridablanca, Colombia

    Carolina Ochoa, Olga L. Bayona, Hernando A. Camargo & Angélica M. Candela

  2. Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad EAN, Calle 79 11-45, Bogotá, Colombia

    Mario A. Hernández

  3. Facultad de Ingenieria Ambiental, Universidad Santo Tomás, Carrera 9 51-11, Bogotá, Colombia

    Iván O. Cabeza

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  1. Carolina Ochoa
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  2. Mario A. Hernández
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Correspondence to Mario A. Hernández.

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Ochoa, C., Hernández, M.A., Bayona, O.L. et al. Phosphorus recovery by struvite from anaerobic co-digestion effluents during residual biomass treatment. Biomass Conv. Bioref. 11, 261–274 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13399-020-01146-6

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