Advances in Struvite Precipitation Technologies for Nutrients Removal and Recovery from Aqueous Waste and Wastewater

Alessio Siciliano, Carlo Limonti, Giulia Maria Curcio and Raffaele Molinari
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Alessio Siciliano: Laboratory of Environmental Sanitary Engineering, Department of Environmental Engineering, University of Calabria, 87036 Rende (CS), Italy
Carlo Limonti: Laboratory of Environmental Sanitary Engineering, Department of Environmental Engineering, University of Calabria, 87036 Rende (CS), Italy
Giulia Maria Curcio: Laboratory of Environmental Sanitary Engineering, Department of Environmental Engineering, University of Calabria, 87036 Rende (CS), Italy
Raffaele Molinari: Laboratory of Chemical Fundaments of Membrane Technologies, Department of Environmental Engineering, University of Calabria, 87036 Rende (CS), Italy

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 18, 1-35

Abstract: The abatement of nutrient compounds from aqueous waste and wastewater is currently a priority issue. Indeed, the uncontrolled discharge of high levels of nutrients into water bodies causes serious deteriorations of environmental quality. On the other hand, the increasing request of nutrient compounds for agronomic utilizations makes it strictly necessary to identify technologies able to recover the nutrients from wastewater streams so as to avoid the consumption of natural resources. In this regard, the removal and recovery of nitrogen and phosphorus from aqueous waste and wastewater as struvite (MgNH 4 PO 4 ·6H 2 O) represents an attractive approach. Indeed, through the struvite precipitation it is possible to effectively remove the ammonium and phosphate content of many types of wastewater and to produce a solid compound, with only a trace of impurities. This precipitate, due to its chemical characteristics, represents a valuable multi-nutrients slow release fertilizer for vegetables and plants growth. For these reasons, the struvite precipitation technology constantly progresses on several aspects of the process. This manuscript provides a comprehensive review on the recent developments in this technology for the removal and recovery of nutrients from aqueous waste and wastewater. The theoretical background, the parameters, and the operating conditions affecting the process evolution are initially presented. After that, the paper focuses on the reagents exploitable to promote the process performance, with particular regard to unconventional low-cost compounds. In addition, the development of reactors configurations, the main technologies implemented on field scale, as well as the recent works on the use of struvite in agronomic practices are presented.

Keywords: ammonium; magnesium; MAP; nutrients recovery; phosphorus; struvite (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

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