What is it about?
A waste material, sisal fibres leftovers from cordage industry, are used to test a method aimed at transporting the ions preferentially leaving behind the remaining components of bittern. This material was used to recover phosphorous from waste sources, in this case with concentrations found in hydrolyzed urine by precipitation of struvite(MgNH4PO4.6H2O)
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Why is it important?
Seawater Bittern, from saltpans, is an excelent source of Magnesium(Mg) but also contains considerable amount of organic matter that can enter in the lattice of the crystal. In comparison, crystal of struvite obtained using bittern tend to have more noise in the baseline of XRD when compared with using MgCl2 or MgSO4, and is likely because of this organic matter. Two methods were tested, more as proof of concept, and one in particular shown maybe a potential alternative that needs future attention
Perspectives
This article made use of the exceptional magnesium concentration found in bittern when compared to other sources, the idea attempts to create an alternative way to add Mg so struvite can precipitate. It defied maybe the most obvious logic, but opens the path for different approaches in phosphorous recovery, mainly in water bodies with not so high phosphorous concentration as urine.
Denis Rodrigues
Instituto Superior de Agronomia da Universidade de Lisboa
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Bittern-impregnated sisal: An alternative magnesium source for phosphorus recovery through struvite precipitation?, Journal of Water Process Engineering, December 2022, Elsevier,
DOI: 10.1016/j.jwpe.2022.103227.
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