Recycle of electrolytically dissolved struvite as an alternative to enhance phosphate and nitrogen recovery from swine wastewater

Operational parameters such as electric voltage, NaCl, reaction time (RT) and initial struvite amount were optimized for struvite dissolution with a designed electrolysis reactor, and the effect of recycling the dissolved solution on the performance of struvite crystallization was also assessed. The electrolytic reactor was made of plexiglas having titanium plate coated with iridium oxide as anode (surface area: 400 cm(2)) and stainless steel plates as cathodes. For reutilization of dissolved struvite, four runs were conducted with different recycle ratio of the solution. Optimum conditions for the electric voltage, NaCl, RT and initial struvite amount were 7 V. 0.06%, 1.5 h and 1.25 g/L, respectively. At the above optimized conditions, 49.17 mg/L phosphate (PO43--P) was dissolved and ammonium-nitrogen (NH4-N) got completely removed from the solution. When 0.0, 0.5, 1.0 and 2.0 moles of the dissolved struvite with respect to PO43--P in swine wastewater were recycled along with 0.5 M magnesium chloride (MgCl2), the PO43--P removal was 63, 69, 71 and 79%, and NH4-N was 9, 31, 40 and 53%, respectively. Hence, the performance of struvite formation process was proportionally increased. It is concluded that struvite can be re-dissolved by electrolysis and reused as a source of P and Mg. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.