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Two-phase nutrient recovery from livestock wastewaters combining novel membrane technologies

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Abstract

The application of new technologies in the agro-industrial sector is needed to close the loop of the nutrient cycle in the food chain. The aim of this work is to study the feasibility of the combination of two nutrient recovery technologies. In a first step, the novel gas-permeable membrane technology recovers N from the wastewater as an ammonium sulfate solution (a bio-based fertilizer). Secondly, the electrodialytic process recovers P, as an electrolyte solution, from which P can then be precipitated as struvite (a slow-release fertilizer). The process was tested in two different livestock wastewaters: swine manure (SM) and anaerobically digested SM (digestate). Recovery efficiencies for N were 53% for SM and 94% for digestate; for P, the efficiencies were 100% and 74% for SM and digestate, respectively. The results showed a great potential of combining these novel membrane technologies in livestock wastewaters, promoting the sustainability of the sector in the realm of the bioeconomy.

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Funding

This work has been funded by the National Institute of Research and Agro-Food Technology (INIA) and co-financed with FEDER funds (Projects RTA2015-00060-C04-01 and PID2019-106148RR-C41), and for the EU Program INTERREG V-A Spain – Portugal (POCTEP) 2014–2020 (Project 0745_SYMBIOSIS_II_3_E). Isabel González-García was supported by a grant from the Spanish National Research Agency (Agencia Estatal de Investigación, AEI) training program of research staff under the grant number BES-2017- 082327. Verónica Oliveira has been funded through FCT “Fundação para a Ciência e para a Tecnologia” by POCH – Programa Operacional Capital Humano within ESF – European Social Fund and by Portuguese national funds from MCTES (SFRH/BD/115312/2016). CERNAS is funded by the FCT – Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (UIDB/00681/2020UID). Beatriz Molinuevo-Salces had the financial support of the grant RYC-2020-029030-I/ AEI / 10.13039/501100011033.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Agricultural Technological Institute of Castilla Y León (ITACyL), Ctra. Burgos, km. 119, 47071, Valladolid, Spain

    Isabel González-García, Beatriz Molinuevo-Salces, María Cruz García-González & Berta Riaño

  2. Research Centre for Natural Resources, Environment and Society (CERNAS), College of Agriculture, Polytechnic Institute of Coimbra, Bencanta, 3045-601, Coimbra, Portugal

    Verónica Oliveira & Celia Dias-Ferreira

  3. New Organic Planet, Rua dos Murças, 71 – 3º, 9000-058, Funchal, Portugal

    Verónica Oliveira

  4. Centro de Estudos Globais (CEG), Universidade Aberta, Palácio Ceia, Rua da Escola Politécnica, 141-147, 1269-001, Lisbon, Portugal

    Celia Dias-Ferreira

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  1. Isabel González-García
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  2. Verónica Oliveira
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  3. Beatriz Molinuevo-Salces
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  4. María Cruz García-González
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  5. Celia Dias-Ferreira
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  6. Berta Riaño
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Contributions

Isabel González-García: investigation, resources, formal analysis, writing—original draft. Verónica Oliveira: investigation, resources, formal analysis, conceptualization, writing—review and editing, validation, supervision. Beatriz Molinuevo-Salces: conceptualization, writing—review and editing, validation, supervision. Berta Riaño: conceptualization, writing—review and editing, validation, supervision. María Cruz García-González: conceptualization, supervision, funding acquisition, project administration. Celia Dias-Ferreira: conceptualization, supervision, funding acquisition, project administration.

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Correspondence to María Cruz García-González.

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González-García, I., Oliveira, V., Molinuevo-Salces, B. et al. Two-phase nutrient recovery from livestock wastewaters combining novel membrane technologies. Biomass Conv. Bioref. 12, 4563–4574 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13399-022-02546-6

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