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Biochar seeding promotes struvite formation, but accelerates heavy metal accumulation
Atif Muhmood1, Jiaxin Lu1, Rahul Kadam1
1College of Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, PR China.
The Science of the Total Environment
|October 28, 2018
Summary
Biochar seeding enhances nutrient recovery from digestate, improving struvite fertilizer quality. This sustainable method boosts phosphate and ammonium recovery and increases particle size while reducing pathogens.
Area of Science:
- Environmental Science
- Chemical Engineering
- Agronomy
Background:
- Anaerobic digestate is a rich source of nutrients, but efficient recovery is challenging.
- Struvite precipitation is a key method for nutrient recovery, but particle size and efficiency can be limiting.
- Biochar, a byproduct of biomass pyrolysis, has potential applications in wastewater treatment.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the efficacy of biochar seeding in enhancing nutrient recovery (phosphate and ammonium) via struvite formation.
- To evaluate the impact of biochar seeding on struvite particle size and morphology.
- To assess the influence of biochar seeding on heavy metal accumulation and pathogen removal in digestate.
Main Methods:
- Biochar (wheat straw and rice husk) was used as a seeding material in struvite precipitation from anaerobic digestate supernatant.
- Operational factors like pH, supersaturation, reaction time, and seeding rates were varied.
- Struvite characteristics were analyzed using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR).
- Pathogen removal (total coliforms, E. coli) and heavy metal content were quantified.
Main Results:
- Biochar seeding significantly improved phosphate and ammonium recovery efficiencies compared to non-seeding and struvite-seeding methods.
- Struvite particle size increased by up to 43% with biochar seeding, regardless of biochar type.
- Substantial removal of total coliforms (75%) and E. coli (70%) was achieved.
- While heavy metals accumulated in struvite, concentrations remained below agricultural application limits.
Conclusions:
- Biochar seeding is a sustainable strategy to enhance struvite formation and nutrient recovery from anaerobic digestate.
- This method yields high-quality struvite fertilizer with improved particle sizes.
- Biochar seeding contributes to pathogen reduction in digestate, offering a dual benefit for nutrient recovery and wastewater treatment.
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