A Novel Electrochemical Reactor for Nitrogen and Phosphorus Recovery from Domestic Wastewater

doi:10.1007/s11783-017-0983-x

Front. Environ. Sci. Eng.

2017, Vol. 11

Issue (4) : 17 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-017-0983-x

SHORT COMMUNICATION

A Novel Electrochemical Reactor for Nitrogen and Phosphorus Recovery from Domestic Wastewater

Shiting Ren, Mengchen Li, Jianyu Sun, Yanhong Bian, Kuichang Zuo, Xiaoyuan Zhang, Peng Liang(

), Xia Huang

State Key Joint Laboratory of Environment Simulation and Pollution Control, School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China

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Abstract

An electrochemical reactor with connected anode and cathode was designed.

Phosphate and ammonia were concentrated 4~5 times continuously and selectively.

Concentration differences between chambers were utilized to control the separation.

Long-term operation with struvite formation was proved to be repeatable.

To separate and concentrate NH4+ and PO43 from the synthetic wastewater to the concentrated solution through a novel electrochemical reactor with circulated anode and cathode using the difference of the concentration between electrode chamber and middle chamber.

In recent years, the research on electrochemical processes have been focused on phosphate and ammonium removal and recovery. Among the wide range of possibilities with regards to electrochemical processes, capacitive deionization (CDI) saves the most energy while at the same time does not have continuity and selectivity. In this study, a new electrochemical reactor with electrolyte cyclic flowing in the electrode chambers was constructed to separate and concentrate phosphate and ammonium continuously and selectively from wastewater, based on the principle of CDI. At the concentration ratio of NaCl solution between the electrode chambers and the middle chamber (r) of 25 to 1, phosphate and ammonium in concentration level of domestic wastewater can be removed and recovered continuously and selectively as struvite. Long-term operation also indicated the ability to continuously repeat the reaction and verified sustained stability. Further, the selective recovery at the certain r could also be available to similar technologies for recovering other kinds of substances.

Keywords Nutrients recovery Electrochemical reactor Electrolyte cyclic flowing Concentration ratio Struvite

Corresponding Author(s): Peng Liang,Xia Huang

Issue Date: 03 August 2017

Cite this article:

Shiting Ren,Mengchen Li,Jianyu Sun, et al. A Novel Electrochemical Reactor for Nitrogen and Phosphorus Recovery from Domestic Wastewater[J]. Front. Environ. Sci. Eng., 2017, 11(4): 17.

URL:

https://academic.hep.com.cn/fese/EN/10.1007/s11783-017-0983-x
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fese/EN/Y2017/V11/I4/17

Fig.1 (a) Schematic diagram of the laboratory-scale phosphate and ammonia recovery system based on electrochemical reactor. (b) The principle of separating and concentrating NH₄⁺ and PO₄³⁻ from the synthetic wastewater (SW) to the concentrated solution (CS) using the difference of the concentration between electrode chamber and middle chamber.

Fig.2 The changing curves of (a) electrical conductivity at pre-test; (b) concentration of phosphate and ammonia at pre-test; (c) electrical conductivity at final test; (d) average current at fianl test according to different r_em.

Fig.3 (a) The phosphate and ammonia concentrating curves in 10 days; (b) The phosphate and ammonia recovery curves in a long-term operation.

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