Recovering, Stabilizing, and Reusing Nitrogen and Carbon from Nutrient-Containing Liquid Waste as Ammonium Carbonate Fertilizer

Mariana Brondi, Mohamed Eisa, Ricardo Bortoletto-Santos, Donata Drapanauskaite, Tara Reddington, Clinton Williams, Caue Ribeiro and Jonas Baltrusaitis ()
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Mariana Brondi: Embrapa Instrumentation, Rua XV de Novembro 1452, São Carlos 13560-970, SP, Brazil
Mohamed Eisa: Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Lehigh University, B336 Iacocca Hall, 111 Research Drive, Bethlehem, PA 18015, USA
Ricardo Bortoletto-Santos: Embrapa Instrumentation, Rua XV de Novembro 1452, São Carlos 13560-970, SP, Brazil
Donata Drapanauskaite: Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Lehigh University, B336 Iacocca Hall, 111 Research Drive, Bethlehem, PA 18015, USA
Tara Reddington: Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Lehigh University, B336 Iacocca Hall, 111 Research Drive, Bethlehem, PA 18015, USA
Clinton Williams: USDA-ARS, US Arid Land Agricultural Research Center, 21881 N. Cardon Ln, Maricopa, AZ 85138, USA
Caue Ribeiro: Embrapa Instrumentation, Rua XV de Novembro 1452, São Carlos 13560-970, SP, Brazil
Jonas Baltrusaitis: Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Lehigh University, B336 Iacocca Hall, 111 Research Drive, Bethlehem, PA 18015, USA

Agriculture, 2023, vol. 13, issue 4, 1-28

Abstract: Ammonium carbonates are a group of fertilizer materials that include ammonium bicarbonate, ammonium carbonate hydrate, and ammonium carbamate. They can be synthesized from diverse nutrient-bearing liquid waste streams but are unstable in a moist environment. While extensively utilized several decades ago, their use gradually decreased in favor of large-scale, facility-synthesized urea fertilizers. The emergence of sustainable agriculture, however, necessitates the recovery and reuse of nutrients using conventional feedstocks, such as natural gas and air-derived nitrogen, and nutrient-containing biogenic waste streams. To this extent, anaerobic digestion liquid presents a convenient source of solid nitrogen and carbon to produce solid fertilizers, since no significant chemical transformations are needed as nitrogen is already present as an ammonium ion. This review describes detailed examples of such feedstocks and the methods required to concentrate and crystallize solid ammonium carbonates. The technologies currently proposed or utilized to stabilize ammonium carbonate materials in the environment are described in detail. Finally, the agricultural efficiency of these materials as nitrogen and carbon source is also described.

Keywords: nitrogen; carbon; fertilizers; digestate; ammonium; carbonate; bicarbonate; carbamate; recovery; volatilization; stabilization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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