Title |
Ammonium recovery from municipal wastewater by ion exchange: Development and application of a procedure for sorbent selection |
ID_Doc |
21292 |
Authors |
Pinelli, D; Foglia, A; Fatone, F; Papa, E; Maggetti, C; Bovina, S; Frascari, D |
Title |
Ammonium recovery from municipal wastewater by ion exchange: Development and application of a procedure for sorbent selection |
Year |
2022 |
Published |
Journal Of Environmental Chemical Engineering, 10.0, 6 |
DOI |
10.1016/j.jece.2022.108829 |
Abstract |
Ion exchange represents one of the most promising processes for ammonium recovery from municipal waste-water (MWW). However, most previous studies on ammonium ion exchange did not optimize the process or evaluate its robustness under real operational conditions. This experimental study aimed at (i) developing a procedure for the selection of a sorbent for selective ammonium removal/recovery from MWW, (ii) validating the procedure by applying it to several sorbents, (iii) performing a preliminary optimization and robustness assessment of ammonium removal/recovery with the selected sorbent. The application of the procedure to natural and synthetic zeolites and a cation exchange resin confirmed that batch isotherm tests need to be integrated by continuous-flow tests. The selected sorbent, a natural mixture of Chabazite and Phillipsite, resulted in high performances in terms of cation exchange capacity (33 mgN gd(ry resin)(-1)), ammonium operating capacity (5.2 mgN g(dry resin)(-1)), ammonium recovery yield (78-91%) and selectivity towards ammonium. The process performances resulted stable during 7 adsorption/desorption cycles conducted with MWW treatment plant effluents in a 60-cm column. The switch to a highly saline effluent produced in a hotspot of seawater intrusion did not determine significant changes in performances. Contact time was reduced to 6 min without any decrease in performances. Potassium - well tolerated by crops - was selected as the regenerating agent, in the perspective to produce a desorbed product to be re-used as fertilizer. The study shows that Chabazite/Phillipsite has a high capacity to recover ammonium from MWW in a circular economy approach. |
Author Keywords |
Ion-exchange; Adsorption; Wastewater treatment; Natural zeolites; Resource recovery; Circular economy |
Index Keywords |
Index Keywords |
Document Type |
Other |
Open Access |
Open Access |
Source |
Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED) |
EID |
WOS:000882126800003 |
WoS Category |
Engineering, Environmental; Engineering, Chemical |
Research Area |
Engineering |
PDF |
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jece.2022.108829
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