Improving phosphorus recovery by supplemententing existing Danish wastewater treatment using electrodialysis

2014

The efficient recovery and plant availability of phosphorus in sewage sludge and sewage sludge ash is often restricted by insoluble forms of phosphorus.

This is a result of chemical precipitation, a common method in wastewater treatment where iron- or aluminum salts are used to capture aqueous phosphorus and prevent its release into the environment. This fraction of phosphorus in the liquid phase is mainly present in the negatively charged, ionic form called ortho-phosphate. It is possible to extract and concentrate this type of phosphorus during wastewater treatment using electrodialysis (ED) and reduce the load of phosphorus on the system. Supplementing current wastewater treatment with this technique could potentially eliminate the usage of chemical precipitants altogether and significantly increase plant-availability of phosphorus in the resulting sludge and, after incineration, sewage sludge ash. The goal of this project is to take the next few steps in developing ED as treatment method to supplement existing wastewater treatment methods, remove chemical precipitation and thus, most importantly, improve plant availability and phosphorous recirculation from final sludge/ash.

Udfører/hovedansøger Danmarks Tekniske Universitet
Øvrige samarbejdspartnere -
Projektets samlede budget DKK 593.584,00
Bevillingsstørrelse tildelt DKK 320.544,00