Aerated Fluidized Bed Treatment for Phosphate Recovery from Dairy and Swine Wastewater

Alon Rabinovich, Ashaki A. Rouff, Beni Lew, Marlon V. Ramlogan

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

27 Scopus citations

Abstract

An aerated fluidized bed reactor (aerated-FBR) was used for recovery of orthophosphate (PO4-P) from dairy wastewater (D-WW) and swine wastewater (S-WW) by struvite (MgNH4PO4·6H2O) precipitation. Model wastewater solutions (S-model, D-model) free of organic material were also treated. The maximum PO4-P recovery for treated livestock wastes was 94% for S-WW and 63% for D-WW. The PO4-P recovery did not improve for S-model compared to S-WW, but increased to 81% for D-model relative to D-WW, suggesting that the high organic content of D-WW may hinder the recovery process. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis of recovered solids revealed that treated S-WW produced mostly struvite (95-98%) while D-WW yielded a mixture of struvite (28-33%), calcite (CaCO3; 17-55%), and monohydrocalcite (CaCO3·H2O; 13-42%). The Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectra of the solids confirm the presence of vibrational bands associated with these minerals. Simultaneous thermal analysis (STA) indicated that all solids, except for D-WW, show thermogravimetric (TG) trends consistent with the struvite and calcium carbonate content. The D-WW solids had additional TG steps, possibly due to high organic and colloidal content, and slightly improved ammonium stability. The aerated-FBR treatment is an effective method to reduce PO4-P from livestock wastewater through precipitation of pure struvite and struvite/calcium carbonate mixtures.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)652-659
Number of pages8
JournalACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering
Volume6
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 2 Jan 2018
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Aerated fluidized bed
  • FTIR
  • Livestock wastewater
  • Nutrient recycling
  • STA-EGA
  • Struvite
  • XRD

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