Project
LWV21108 recovery of phosphorus from waste water using Magnetic Adsorption Desorption - BO-55-001-018
Phosphorus compounds are present in the effluents of various agriculture, industrial, and domestic activities.Phosphorus compounds are scarce, cause eutrophication, and should ideally be reused in a circular economy. To remove phosphates, wastewater treatment plants commonly use chemical precipitation onto the sludge. After anaerobic digestion, phosphate can potentially be recovered but is not common practice, leaving valuable and ending resources unutilized. The emission of phosphorus compounds into water bodies causes environmental problems, such as eutrophication.
In this project, we aim to demonstrate the feasibility of a novel and integrated process for removing and recovering P-compounds from municipal wastewater and process water streams from the food industry. The process is based on the reversible and selective complexation of P-compounds with magnetizable iron
nanoparticles. Novel aspects of the process are that it allows for i) the recovery, in-situ, of the P-compounds, ii) the regeneration of the magnetic particles for continuous use within the process, and iii) direct application in different wastewater streams, i.e., it does not require chemical precipitation onto sludge and anaerobic digestion afterward. Additionally, the process includes an energy-efficient electrochemical process, i.e., electrodialysis, to produce in-situ the chemicals used for recovery and regeneration of the magnetic particles.
The immediate impact of this process is that recovered P-compounds can easily be taken up and valorized to fertilizers for instance. Most importantly, it can potentially target the removal of other P-compounds than
phosphate and contribute to efficiently closing the phosphorus cycle.