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

Highlights

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.

Abstract

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.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

Nutrients recovery / Electrochemical reactor / Electrolyte cyclic flowing / Concentration ratio / Struvite

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the Key Program of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51238004 & 21521064).

Electronic Supplementary Material

Supplementary material is available in the online version of this article at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11783-017-0983-x and is accessible for authorized users.

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