Global phosphorus recovery from wastewater for agricultural reuse

Phosphorus is a nutrient necessary for the development of crops and is thus commonly applied as fertilizer to sustain agricultural production. It occurs naturally, in indefinite quantities of uncertain quality in phosphate rock formations, but also accumulates in urban and livestock wastewater where...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Hydrology and earth system sciences 2018-11, Vol.22 (11), p.5781-5799
Main Authors: Kok, Dirk-Jan D., Pande, Saket, van Lier, Jules B., Ortigara, Angela R. C., Savenije, Hubert, Uhlenbrook, Stefan
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agricultural economics
Agricultural production
Agricultural runoff
Agricultural wastes
Agrochemicals
Animal wastes
Crop development
Crystallization
Discharge
Dynamics
Economic conditions
Economic models
Environmental protection
Fertilizers
Livestock
Markets
Mineral nutrients
Operating costs
Phosphate rocks
Phosphates
Phosphorus
Pollution control
Recovery
Rock phosphate
Rocks
Struvite
Waste recovery
Wastewater
Wastewater treatment
Water treatment plants
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Phosphorus is a nutrient necessary for the development of crops and is thus commonly applied as fertilizer to sustain agricultural production. It occurs naturally, in indefinite quantities of uncertain quality in phosphate rock formations, but also accumulates in urban and livestock wastewater wherefrom it is often lost as a pollutant. Recovering phosphorus from wastewater, however, is feasible through struvite crystallization technologies and has the potential to reduce phosphorus pollution of the environment as well as lower the agricultural demand for artificial P fertilizers. In this study, we developed a model to assess the global potential of P fertilizer recovery from wastewater and to visualize its trade at sub-national resolution. Results show that humans discharge a maximum of 3.7 Mt P into wastewater, thereby potentially satisfying 20 % of the global fertilizer demand. Provided 2015 market dynamics, however, the model determines that only 4 % of this discharge is technologically and economically recoverable in a market that offers cheap rock phosphate products also. The results of this study demonstrate that in the current economic context, phosphorus recovery from wastewater offers only a small contribution to resolving global phosphorus issues. Nevertheless, this recovery offers many wastewater treatment facilities the opportunity to contribute to creating sustainable communities and protecting the environment locally, while reducing their own operational costs.
ISSN:1607-7938
1027-5606
1607-7938
DOI:10.5194/hess-22-5781-2018