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Nutrient Recovery from Municipal Wastewater for Sustainable Food Production Systems: An Alternative to Traditional Fertilizers - Cincinnati
Citation:
Theregowda, R., A. González-Mejía, J. Garland, AND Cissy Ma. Nutrient Recovery from Municipal Wastewater for Sustainable Food Production Systems: An Alternative to Traditional Fertilizers - Cincinnati. ICOSSE '18: Industry, Innovation and Sustainability, Cincinnati, Ohio, August 12 - 15, 2018.
Impact/Purpose:
In order to have a deeper understanding of the nutrient management in terms of sustainability and holistic system consideration, my ongoing study compared different levels of nutrient removal (Chemical addition with - Modified Ludzack-Ettinger or Bardenpho or Modified University of Cape Town Processes with added Filtration or Osmosis) and nutrient recovery technologies (Struvite precipitation using proprietary techniques and added N reduction processes) by using emergy as a sustainability metric tool. This study addresses 1) how the regulatory rules drive the system changes; 2) how the conventional system can be transitioned to more cost effective more sustainable alternatives in nutrient management. The results shed some lights on better nutrient management options, the corresponding system energy expenditure, and how to achieve overall system efficiency and optimize trade-offs of treatment options.
Description:
This research evaluates fertilizer production from struvite (i.e., magnesium ammonium phosphate hexahydrate) generated from mixed wastewater. It compares the struvite production against traditional commercial fertilizers (e.g., diammonium phosphate). This analysis sheds light on the feasibility of nutrient recovery, quantifies the direct and indirect contributions, including the phosphorus rock formation, to the entire supply chain for both fertilizer production processes.