IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v12y2020i18p7538-d412807.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

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

Author

Listed:
  • 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)

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Alessio Siciliano & Carlo Limonti & Giulia Maria Curcio & Raffaele Molinari, 2020. "Advances in Struvite Precipitation Technologies for Nutrients Removal and Recovery from Aqueous Waste and Wastewater," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-35, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:18:p:7538-:d:412807
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/18/7538/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/18/7538/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Maria Concetta Tomei & Valentina Stazi & Saba Daneshgar & Andrea G. Capodaglio, 2020. "Holistic Approach to Phosphorus Recovery from Urban Wastewater: Enhanced Biological Removal Combined with Precipitation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-12, January.
    2. Alessio Siciliano & Maria Assuntina Stillitano & Carlo Limonti, 2016. "Energetic Valorization of Wet Olive Mill Wastes through a Suitable Integrated Treatment: H 2 O 2 with Lime and Anaerobic Digestion," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(11), pages 1-15, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Carolina González-Morales & Belén Fernández & Francisco J. Molina & Darío Naranjo-Fernández & Adriana Matamoros-Veloza & Miller Alonso Camargo-Valero, 2021. "Influence of pH and Temperature on Struvite Purity and Recovery from Anaerobic Digestate," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-14, September.
    2. Aftab Ali Kubar & Qing Huang & Muhammad Sajjad & Chen Yang & Faqin Lian & Junfeng Wang & Kashif Ali Kubar, 2021. "The Recovery of Phosphate and Ammonium from Biogas Slurry as Value-Added Fertilizer by Biochar and Struvite Co-Precipitation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-17, March.
    3. Yifan Zhou & Yingying Zhu & Jinyuan Zhu & Chaoran Li & Geng Chen, 2023. "A Comprehensive Review on Wastewater Nitrogen Removal and Its Recovery Processes," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(4), pages 1-27, February.
    4. Kazi Parvez Fattah & Sarah Sinno & Serter Atabay & Zahid Khan & Zahraa Al-Dawood & Alaa Kamel Yasser & Riyad Temam, 2022. "Impact of Magnesium Sources for Phosphate Recovery and/or Removal from Waste," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-12, June.
    5. Carla Mae Jabar Pausta & Michael Angelo Baliwag Promentilla & Alberto Leyes Longos & Aileen Huelgas Orbecido & Arnel Bas Beltran & Regina Gador Damalerio & Maria Eda Apple Artesano Suplido & Devendra , 2023. "Resource-Oriented Sanitation: On-Farm Septage Treatment and Nutrient Recycling for Sustainable Agriculture in the Philippines," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-20, June.
    6. Augusto Bianchini & Jessica Rossi, 2020. "An Integrated Industry-Based Methodology to Unlock Full-Scale Implementation of Phosphorus Recovery Technology," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(24), pages 1-17, December.
    7. Işık Kabdaşlı & Alessio Siciliano & Carlo Limonti & Olcay Tünay, 2022. "Is K-Struvite Precipitation a Plausible Nutrient Recovery Method from Potassium-Containing Wastes?—A Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-35, September.
    8. Nicola Di Costanzo & Alessandra Cesaro & Francesco Di Capua & Giovanni Esposito, 2021. "Exploiting the Nutrient Potential of Anaerobically Digested Sewage Sludge: A Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(23), pages 1-25, December.
    9. Marzena Smol, 2021. "Transition to Circular Economy in the Fertilizer Sector—Analysis of Recommended Directions and End-Users’ Perception of Waste-Based Products in Poland," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-19, July.
    10. Md Tahmid Islam & Al Ibtida Sultana & Cadianne Chambers & Swarna Saha & Nepu Saha & Kawnish Kirtania & M. Toufiq Reza, 2022. "Recent Progress on Emerging Applications of Hydrochar," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(24), pages 1-45, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Vasileios A. Tzanakakis & Andrea G. Capodaglio & Andreas N. Angelakis, 2023. "Insights into Global Water Reuse Opportunities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(17), pages 1-30, August.
    2. Julio Berbel & Alejandro Posadillo, 2018. "Review and Analysis of Alternatives for the Valorisation of Agro-Industrial Olive Oil By-Products," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(1), pages 1-9, January.
    3. Rabia Abdur Rehman & Muhammad Farooq Qayyum & Ghulam Haider & Kate Schofield & Muhammad Abid & Muhammad Rizwan & Shafaqat Ali, 2021. "The Sewage Sludge Biochar and Its Composts Influence the Phosphate Sorption in an Alkaline–Calcareous Soil," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-12, February.
    4. Xiaoqi Liu & Jialong Lv, 2023. "Efficient Phosphate Removal from Wastewater by Ca-Laden Biochar Composites Prepared from Eggshell and Peanut Shells: A Comparison of Methods," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-14, January.
    5. Alessio Siciliano & Carlo Limonti & Sanjeet Mehariya & Antonio Molino & Vincenza Calabrò, 2018. "Biofuel Production and Phosphorus Recovery through an Integrated Treatment of Agro-Industrial Waste," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-17, December.
    6. Augusto Bianchini & Jessica Rossi, 2020. "An Integrated Industry-Based Methodology to Unlock Full-Scale Implementation of Phosphorus Recovery Technology," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(24), pages 1-17, December.
    7. Alessio Siciliano & Giulia Maria Curcio & Carlo Limonti, 2020. "Chemical Denitrification with Mg 0 Particles in Column Systems," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-26, April.
    8. Marcin Dębowski & Marcin Zieliński, 2020. "Technological Effectiveness of Sugar-Industry Effluent Methane Fermentation in a Fluidized Active Filling Reactor (FAF-R)," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(24), pages 1-17, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:18:p:7538-:d:412807. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.