Phosphorous extraction and heavy metal separation from sewage sludge ash by two-compartment electrodialysis in an upscaled tube reactor.

Two-compartment electrodialytic extraction (2C-ED) is a one-step process for the simultaneous phosphorous extraction and separation of heavy metals from sewage sludge ash (SSA). The process is driven by an applied electric DC field, which can be supplied from renewable sources. The proof-of-concept of the method was conducted in small laboratory cells; however, upscaling to a continuous 2C-ED process, which additionally can treat SSA suspensions at a low liquid-to-solid (L:S) ratio, requires a new design. This paper presents such a new design. In principle, ED consists of two compartments separated by a cation exchange membrane. One compartment contains a suspension of SSA in water and the anode. A cathode is placed in the other compartment. Electrolysis at the anode acidifies the suspension causing the dissolution of phosphorous and heavy metals. The heavy metals are separated from the suspension by electromigration into the catholyte, whereas the dissolved phosphorous remains in the dispersion solution. In the new design, the SSA was suspended in a tube-shaped reactor with the cation exchange membrane covering the outside. The reactor was placed in a container with the catholyte. Periodically turning off the reactor kept SSA in suspension even at a low L:S ratio without corners and pockets where the SSA otherwise tends to settle. Five 2C-ED experiments were conducted with 1.5 to 3 kg SSA at varying currents and durations. Up to 89% P was extracted. The extracted P was concentrated in the dispersion solution of the SSA suspension, where the obtained P-related concentrations of heavy metals were far below the limiting values for spreading on agricultural land. The experiments underlined that treating the SSA in a suspension with a low L:S ratio is advantageous. A comparison to previous laboratory experiments in small cells treating 50 g SSA shows a significantly more efficient use of the applied current in the new reactor setup. Thus, the new reactor design for 2C-ED fulfilled the set criteria for the operation and did additionally result in a higher efficiency than the laboratory setups, i.e., the design can be the first step towards an upscaling.

Comparison of phosphorus recovery from incineration and gasification sewage sludge ash.

Incineration of sewage sludge is a common practice in many western countries. Gasification is an attractive option because of its high energy efficiency and flexibility in the usage of the produced gas. However, they both unavoidably produce sewage sludge ashes, a material that is rich in phosphorus, but which is commonly landfilled or used in construction materials. With current uncertainty in phosphate rock supply, phosphorus recovery from sewage sludge ashes has become interesting. In the present work, ashes from incineration and gasification of the same sewage sludge were compared in terms of phosphorus extractability using electrodialytic (ED) methods. The results show that comparable recovery rates of phosphorus were achieved with a single ED step for incineration ashes and a sequential combination of two ED steps for gasification ashes, which was due to a higher influence of iron and/or aluminium in phosphorus solubility for the latter. A product with lower level of metallic impurities and comparable to wet process phosphoric acid was eventually obtained from gasification ashes. Thus, gasification becomes an interesting alternative to incineration also in terms of phosphorus separation.

Sequential electrodialytic recovery of phosphorus from low-temperature gasification ashes of chemically precipitated sewage sludge.

Phosphorus recycling from secondary materials like sewage sludge ashes offers an alternative to mining of phosphates from primary resources and a mean to counteract the current phosphorous rock depletion concern. A separation of P from the bulk ash is normally required, due to its low plant availability and the presence of heavy metals. Previously, more than 80% of P was recovered from incineration sewage sludge ashes using a two-compartment electrodialytic cell. In contrast, the recovery was below 30% for ashes from low-temperature gasification using the same setup. The low recovery was due to a high presence of Al- and Fe(III)-P bindings. In the present study, an electrodialytic process combining sequentially a pair of two-compartment cells allowed a recovery of up to 70% of phosphorus from these ashes. The use of a second cell, where the ash was suspended in an alkaline solution, allowed the P solubilisation from aluminium and ferric phosphates. In addition, P was separated from most metals as they became insoluble under the prevailing chemical environment. The obtained ratio of Al, Fe, Mg and most heavy metals to P was comparable to wet process phosphoric acid. Therefore, this sequential process was found to be suitable to recycle P and potentially use it in the production of common fertilizers like diammonium phosphate.

Valorisation of ferric sewage sludge ashes: Potential as a phosphorus source.

Sewage sludge ashes (SSA), although a waste, contain elements with socio-economic and environmental potential that can be recovered. This is the case of phosphorus (P). SSA from two Danish incinerators were collected during two years and characterized. The sampling was done immediately after incineration (fresh SSA) or from an outdoor deposit (deposited SSA). Although morphology and mineral composition were similar, physico-chemical and metal concentration differences were found between incinerator plants and sampling periods. No differences were observed between deposited and fresh SSA, except for the parameters directly influenced by disposal conditions (e.g. moisture content). All the SSAs had high concentrations of P (up to 16wt%), but they all exceeded Danish EPA Cd and Ni thresholds for direct application at agricultural soil. Fresh and deposited SSA were acid washed aiming P extraction, achieving 50gP/kg (approx. 37% of total P), but metals were also co-extracted to the liquid phase. To avoid and/or minimize the metals pollution of the extracted P, selective P recovery from the SSA was tested, using the electrodialytic (ED) process. ED laboratory cells, with 3 compartments (3c) and 2 compartments (2c), and two acid concentrations (H2SO4, 0.08M and 0.19M) were used for 7days. The most concentrated acid solution increased P solubilization. The 2c-cell combined with the higher acid concentration resulted in higher P recoveries, 125g of P/kg of SSA in the anolyte. The obtained results showed that the ED process is a valuable tool for the SSA valorisation as it promotes simultaneous P recovery and metals extraction from the SSA.

Phosphorous recovery from sewage sludge ash suspended in water in a two-compartment electrodialytic cell.

Phosphorus (P) is indispensable for all forms of life on Earth and as P is a finite resource, it is highly important to increase recovery of P from secondary resources. This investigation is focused on P recovery from sewage sludge ash (SSA) by a two-compartment electrodialytic separation (EDS) technique. Two SSAs are included in the investigation and they contained slightly less P than phosphate rock used in commercial fertilizer production and more heavy metals. The two-compartment electrodialytic technique enabled simultaneous recovery of P and separation of heavy metals. During EDS the SSA was suspended in water in the anolyte, which was separated from the catholyte by a cation exchange membrane. Electrolysis at the anode acidified the SSA suspension, and hereby P, Cu, Pb, Cd and Zn were extracted. The heavy metal ions electromigrated into the catholyte and were thus separated from the filtrate with P. More than 95% P was extracted from both SSAs. The charge transfer to obtain this varied when treating the two SSAs, and for one ash it was about 30% higher than for the other as a result of a higher buffering capacity against acidification. The repeatability of EDS results between experiments with the same SSA and the same experimental conditions was good, which shows that the process is easy to control at the studied laboratory conditions. About 80% P and 10% of the heavy metals remained in the filtrate from the anolyte after treatment of both SSAs. The heavy metal content relative to P in the filtrate by far meet the limiting values for use of industrial wastes as fertilizers, thus the filtrate is ready for direct processing into P-fertilizer.

Treatment of a suspension of PCB contaminated soil using iron nanoparticles and electric current.

Contaminated soils and sediments with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) are an important environmental problem due to the persistence of these synthetic aromatic compounds and to the lack of a cost-effective and sustainable remediation technology. Recently, a new experimental setup has been proposed using electrodialytic remediation and iron nanoparticles. The current work compares the performance of this new setup (A) with conventional electrokinetics (setup B). An historically contaminated soil with an initial PCB concentration of 258 µg kg(-1) was treated during 5, 10, 20 and 45 d using different amounts of iron nanoparticles in both setups A and B. A PCB removal of 83% was obtained in setup A compared with 58% of setup B. Setup A also showed additional advantages, such as a higher PCB dechlorination, in a shorter time, with lower nZVI consumption, and with the use of half of the voltage gradient when compared with the traditional setup (B). Energy and nZVI costs for a full-scale reactor are estimated at 72 € for each cubic meter of PCB contaminated soil treated on-site, making this technology competitive when compared with average off-site incineration (885 € m(-3)) or landfilling (231 € m(-3)) cost in Europe and in the USA (327 USD m(-3)).

Comparison of two different electrodialytic cells for separation of phosphorus and heavy metals from sewage sludge ash.

With decreasing availability of phosphorus from primary resources its recovery from waste streams becomes increasingly more important. Sewage sludge ash is rich in phosphorus, but the direct use as fertilizer is limited because of inorganic contaminants such as heavy metals and strong bonding of phosphorous in the ash. Electrodialysis (ED) can be used to recover phosphorus and simultaneously remove heavy metals. The present work is an experimental screening of different options for ED in relation to experimental setup and combination with acid addition. Experiments for stirred ash suspensions utilizing a three compartment cell setup where the anode, cathode and stirred suspension are separated by ion exchange membranes are reported. Simplifying this experimental setup by removing the anion exchange membrane brings the anode in direct contact with the stirred ash suspension. Through this adjustment, half-reactions at the anode contribute to the acidity of the stirred suspension resulting in increased dissolution of both phosphorus and heavy metals (Cd, Cu, Cr, Pb, Zn, Ni) and better separation of most heavy metals from the stirred ash suspension. When the ash is suspended in an acidic solution, these effects increase significantly in early stages of the experiments. The combination of ED in a two compartment setup and initial acidification of the stirred suspension is most effective in dissolving of phosphorus and separation of heavy metals. In this setup, up to 96% of the phosphorus in the ash was dissolved after 7 d. Using the three compartment setup and initially suspending the ash in distilled water, resulted in 53% dissolution of the total recovered phosphorus after 7 d.

Phosphorus recovery from sewage sludge ash through an electrodialytic process.

The electrodialytic separation process (ED) was applied to sewage sludge ash (SSA) aiming at phosphorus (P) recovery. As the SSA may have high heavy metals contents, their removal was also assessed. Two SSA were sampled, one immediately after incineration (SA) and the other from an open deposit (SB). Both samples were ED treated as stirred suspensions in sulphuric acid for 3, 7 and 14 days. After 14 days, phosphorus was mainly mobilized towards the anode end (approx. 60% in the SA and 70% in the SB), whereas heavy metals mainly electromigrated towards the cathode end. The anolyte presented a composition of 98% of P, mainly as orthophosphate, and 2% of heavy metals. The highest heavy metal removal was achieved for Cu (ca. 80%) and the lowest for Pb and Fe (between 4% and 6%). The ED showed to be a viable method for phosphorus recovery from SSA, as it promotes the separation of P from the heavy metals.

Extracting phosphorous from incinerated sewage sludge ash rich in iron or aluminum.

Ashes from mono-incineration of sewage sludge (ISSA) generally contain high concentrations of phosphorous (P) and can be regarded as secondary P resources. ISSA has no direct value as fertilizer as P is not plant available. The present paper experimentally compares P extraction in acid from two different ISSAs; one rich in Al (67g/kg) and the other in Fe (58g/kg). The difference related to P precipitation at the waste water treatment facilities. Another major difference between the ashes was that flue gas purification products were mixed into the first ash and it contained about 5% activated carbon. The Al rich ash had a significantly higher buffering capacity and required more acid for extraction of P. When acid extraction of P from ISSA is the method for recovery, it is thus beneficial to go back to the waste water treatment facility and e.g. choose Fe for P precipitation rather than Al. Formation of a high amount of gypsum crystals in both ashes after extraction in H2SO4 was seen by SEM-EDX. H2SO4 is the cheapest mineral ash, but the gypsum formation must be taken into account when either finding possibility for using the remaining ash in e.g. construction materials or if the choice is deposition, as the gypsum increases the volume significantly.