Hydrophobic membranes for ammonia recovery from digestates in microbial electrolysis cells: Assessment of different configurations

Cerrillo, Míriam; Burgos, Laura; Serrano-Finetti, Ernesto; Riau, Víctor; Noguerol, Joan; Blasi, August Bonmatí

doi:10.1016/j.jece.2021.105289

Cited by 14 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 87 publications

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“…The average COD removal efficiency was in a range of 21-34%, with no significant differences among the different phases (Table 3). This COD removal efficiency is similar to the one reported by previous assays where a MEC was fed with a similar pig slurry digestate [5], and is typical of BES working with complex substrates such as food or agricultural wastes [40].…”

Section: Performance Of the Mecsupporting

confidence: 86%

“…Phase 3 and Phase 4 were the periods with a higher average current density, reaching 0.26 A m −2 (Table 3), although the differences among the phases were not significantly different. The current densities obtained in these assays are slightly lower than those obtained in previous work performed with similar digested pig slurry and OLR, using H-type cells with adjacent anode and cathode compartments, where 0.35 A m −2 were achieved [5]. The increase in distance between the anode and the cathode in this assay, as the recovery compartment was placed between them, may have increased the electrical resistance of the system and in turn reduced the current density [39].…”

Section: Performance Of the Meccontrasting

confidence: 72%

“…Ammonia removal efficiency during Phase 1, with no substrate modification, was 29%, slightly higher than the 23% obtained in the previous assays performed by Cerrillo et co-workers (2021) with similar conditions [5]. The phases with acidification of the catholyte (Phases 2, 3, and 4) reduced this removal efficiency to a range of 7-16%, while the amendment of the anolyte with phosphate with no pH adjust (Phase 5) increased the removal efficiency value to 20%.…”

Section: Phasecontrasting

confidence: 56%

“…This proposal implies the consideration of livestock manure as a nutrient resource [3], among others, that must be recovered and reintroduced to closed loop agriculture. There are several technologies that allow for closing the nutrients cycle, mainly recovering nitrogen and phosphorus to produce fertilizers, stripping and absorption [4], membrane distillation technologies [5,6], and vacuum evaporation [7], among others [8]. The combined nitrogen and phosphorus recovery can be achieved by struvite precipitation [9].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…BES have been tested with different configurations for ammonia recovery. Ammonia recovery BES are generally based on the migration of ammonium through a cation exchange membrane (CEM) by two-chamber cells coupled to ammonia stripping or hydrophobic membranes [5,12,13]. On the other hand, the recovery of phosphate in BES is performed by precipitation or migration through anion exchange membranes (AEM) [14].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Ammonium and Phosphate Recovery in a Three Chambered Microbial Electrolysis Cell: Towards Obtaining Struvite from Livestock Manure

et al. 2021

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Ammonia and phosphate, which are present in large quantities in waste streams such as livestock manure, are key compounds in fertilization activities. Their recovery will help close natural cycles and take a step forward in the framework of a circular economy. In this work, a lab-scale three-chambered microbial electrolysis cell (MEC) has been operated in continuous mode for the recovery of ammonia and phosphate from digested pig slurry in order to obtain a nutrient concentrated solution as a potential source of fertilizer (struvite). The maximum average removal efficiencies for ammonium and phosphate were 20% ± 4% and 36% ± 10%, respectively. The pH of the recovered solution was below 7, avoiding salt precipitation in the reactor. According to Visual MINTEQ software modelling, an increase of pH value to 8 outside the reactor would be enough to recover most of the potential struvite (0.21 mmol L−1 d−1), while the addition of up to 0.2 mM of magnesium to the nutrient recovered solution would enhance struvite production from 5.6 to 17.7 mM. The application of three-chambered MECs to the recovery of nutrients from high strength wastewater is a promising technology to avoid ammonia production through industrial processes or phosphate mineral extraction and close nutrient natural cycles.

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Section: Performance Of the Mecsupporting

confidence: 86%

Section: Performance Of the Meccontrasting

confidence: 72%

Section: Phasecontrasting

confidence: 56%