Progress 07/01/13 to 06/30/14
Outputs
Target Audience: Nutrient Recovery and Upcycling is working with two target audiences. The first is municipal wastewater treatment plants that will adapt our process to remove phosphorus. The second is fertilizer distributors that will market our fertilizer product. Changes/Problems: Nutrient Recovery and Upcycling LLC requested and was approved for a no cost extention until the 28th of June 2014 to complete the work on this project. During our extension we will submit the batch trial data to Stand Associates, a wastewater engineering firm, to complete a mass balance of our process. This will allow us to complete the Phase I of our grant with all the information we would need to scale up our process and build a pilot. The additional time will also allow us to process additional samples that may be required after a final review, finalize chemical modeling of our process, and determine optimizations step necessary for commercialization. No other major changes to report. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? The Barak lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison recieved a small grant from the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance (NCIIA) for business development and commercialization. The PI, students, and assistants hired under a Subaward to the university attended a workshop and follow up coaching related to business development. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?
Nothing Reported
What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Ongoing Outputs: 1. An analysis of the organic acid digest effluent based on measurements of percent solids, mineral content, viscosity, and density to determine the optimal method to reduce its solids content. 2. An analysis of the organic acid digest filtrate based on measurements of percent solids, mineral content, viscosity, and density to determine the optimal method to remove phosphorus through precipitation as brushite. 3. An analysis of the precipitated phosphorus based on measurements of its crystallography, impurities, and mineral content. 4. A technical understanding of the techniques and technologies necessary to reduce solids in the organic acid digest. 5. A mass balance of a process optimized to dewater, mix, and precipitate phosphorus from organic acid digest in a series of steps. 6. A commercialization plan from the phosphorus recovery technology.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Completed Objectives: 1. Determined the rheological properties of a typical organic acid digest. 2. Determined that the optimal separation technology would be a continuous decanter centrifuge and in conjunction. 3. Determined that the brushite product can be easily removed from the reactor through settling.
Publications
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Progress 07/01/13 to 06/30/14
Outputs
Target Audience: Our target audience were wastewater treatment facilities and fertilizer distributors. We made presentations of our Phase I results at the Madison Metropolitan Sewarage District's Nine Springs Wastewater Treatment Plant and the DuPage County Woodridge Greene Valley Wastewater Treatment Facility. Additionally, we connected with MidWest BioAg on the fertilizer product. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?
Nothing Reported
How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? We made presentations of our SBIR Phase I results at the Madison Metropolitan Sewarage District's Nine Springs Wastewater Treatment Plant and the DuPage County Woodridge Greene Valley Wastewater Treatment Facility. Additionally, we connected with MidWest BioAg on the fertilizer product. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Facing strict effluent limits, municipal wastewater treatment facilities are dealing with increasing costs of treating phosphorus in their waste. Current technologies are capable of sequestering the phosphorus in an unusable form or capturing only a fraction of it. Nutrient Recovery and Upcycling, LLC is working on a technology that can recover 44% more of the phosphorus from municipal waste than competing methods while reducing the chemical cost as well as the size of the necessary equipment, energy, and space. The phase I SBIR research helped characterize the organic acid digest, a mid-stream in the anaerobic digestion process at municipal wastewater treatment plants, to determine the best method and configuration to reduce its solids content and precipitate a phosphorus mineral. This technology addresses the need to recycle phosphorus from the waste stream in order to prevent technical problems at wastewater treatment plants and water pollution. The ultimate goal of our process is to produce a high-grade source of phosphorus that has been “upcycled” (i.e., has higher value at the end of the process than at the beginning), and brought to a point where it can be used in either agriculture or industry. The conclusions from the SBIR Phase I research resolve affirmatively several issues with regard to technical feasibility that were previously unknown: the organic acid digest has more than a sufficiently high concentration of soluble phosphate; the digest can undergo a liquid/solid separation to become more manageable for P removal; calcium hydroxide does indeed produce brushite from the digest centrate, and some struvite as well, which is acceptable; the phosphorus product conveniently settles out by sedimentation; and the product has a high P content with a high availability to plants and low heavy metal content. In short, the technical issues to be resolved all broke in favor of project feasibility while, at the same time, no pitfalls for a successful pilot were discovered. The three technical objectives set forth in the SBIR Phase I proposal were addressed and answered by this research, and additional information gathered as well: Rheological testing showed that organic acid digest is a non-Newtonian fluid with shear thinning and brushite could not be recovered without separation of liquid from solid. Centrate is also shear thinning due to low viscosity. The organic acid digests, both those prepared in batch reactors and those from the full-scale MMSD organic acid digester, contained 1030 to 1266 mg/L P, substantially more than considered previously as being required for feasibility. Using industry-standard techniques of polymer addition and centrifugation, applied to organic acid digest for the first time, we were able to produce a low-solids, high P centrate that contained 80% of the soluble P that was in the organic acid digest. By adding calcium hydroxide to bring the centrate pH to 6.5, between 65-99% of the soluble P in the organic acid digest precipitated as product. The brushite product could be recovered by simple sedimentation, rendering a hydrocyclone, fluidized bed reactor or other solid-liquid separation equipment unnecessary. The product was classified by chemical and x-ray diffraction analysis as a brushite/struvite mix, with some calcite in the product where calcite was added. The product was identified as a good potential high-analysis fertilizer material based on citrate-extractable phosphorus as a measure of phosphorus availability to plants and had a low heavy metals content.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2014
Citation:
Tabanpour, M.E. "Phosphate fertilizer recovery from anaerobic acid digesters in sewage treatment plants." Central States Water Environment Association (CSWEA) 87th Annual Meeting. 12-15 May 2014. Poster presentation.
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Progress 07/01/13 to 02/28/14
Outputs
Target Audience: Nutrient Recovery and Upcycling is working with two target audiences. The first is municipal wastewater treatment plants that will adapt our process to remove phosphorus. The second is fertilizer distributors that will market our fertilizer product. Changes/Problems: Nutrient Recovery and Upcycling LLC requested and was approved for a no cost extention until the 28th of June 2014 to complete the work on this project. During our extension we will submit the batch trial data to Stand Associates, a wastewater engineering firm, to complete a mass balance of our process. This will allow us to complete the Phase I of our grant with all the information we would need to scale up our process and build a pilot. The additional time will also allow us to process additional samples that may be required after a final review, finalize chemical modeling of our process, and determine optimizations step necessary for commercialization. No other major changes to report. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? The Barak lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison recieved a small grant from the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance (NCIIA) for business development and commercialization. The PI, students, and assistants hired under a Subaward to the university attended a workshop and follow up coaching related to business development. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?
Nothing Reported
What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Ongoing Outputs: 1. An analysis of the organic acid digest effluent based on measurements of percent solids, mineral content, viscosity, and density to determine the optimal method to reduce its solids content. 2. An analysis of the organic acid digest filtrate based on measurements of percent solids, mineral content, viscosity, and density to determine the optimal method to remove phosphorus through precipitation as brushite. 3. An analysis of the precipitated phosphorus based on measurements of its crystallography, impurities, and mineral content. 4. A technical understanding of the techniques and technologies necessary to reduce solids in the organic acid digest. 5. A mass balance of a process optimized to dewater, mix, and precipitate phosphorus from organic acid digest in a series of steps. 6. A commercialization plan from the phosphorus recovery technology.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Completed Objectives: 1. Determined the rheological properties of a typical organic acid digest. 2. Determined that the optimal separation technology would be a continuous decanter centrifuge and in conjunction. 3. Determined that the brushite product can be easily removed from the reactor through settling.
Publications
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