Wastewater Technology Division, CSIR-National Environmental Engineering Research Institute, Nagpur, 440020, India.
Wastewater Technology Division, CSIR-National Environmental Engineering Research Institute, Nagpur, 440020, India; Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), Ghaziabad, 201002, India.
J Environ Manage. 2022 Nov 1;321:115898. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.115898. Epub 2022 Aug 16.
Recovery of nutrients from wastewater has a paramount importance for a sustainable and safe environment. In this study removal of ammonia and recovery of resources in the form of struvite from a complex pharmaceutical acidic wastewater having high concentration of ammoniacal nitrogen (NH-N > 40 g/L) and other co-existing contaminants (magnesium, phosphorous, phenol etc.) was explored. Response Surface Methodology (RSM) was employed for design of experiments and process optimization. RSM results revealed that removal of ammoniacal nitrogen, i.e., struvite precipitation was found to be maximum in alkaline pH (10.5-11.0) at a N:Mg molar ratio (1:0.030 to 1:0.035) and N:P molar ratio (1:0.025 to 1:0.030). X-Ray diffraction, thermo-gravimetric analysis and Fourier transform-infrared spectroscopy confirmed the presence of struvite crystals in the obtained precipitate. Techno-economic assessment (TEA) based on mass energy balance principle and market equipment specifications revealed that a pilot-scale plant set up would have a break-even period of 1.06 years with a return on investment as 94.28%. This clearly elucidated the economic viability of the developed process for industrial applications for management of high ammonia laden pharmaceutical wastewater. While further specific technological improvements are needed for reduction of cost, this study will guide researchers and industries for careful selection of target markets to reduce the cost for successful implementation.
从废水中回收营养物质对于可持续和安全的环境至关重要。在这项研究中，从一种复杂的药物酸性废水中去除氨并以鸟粪石的形式回收资源，该废水具有高浓度的氨氮（NH-N>40g/L）和其他共存污染物（镁、磷、酚等）。响应面法（RSM）被用于实验设计和过程优化。RSM 结果表明，在碱性 pH（10.5-11.0）下，在 N:Mg 摩尔比（1:0.030 至 1:0.035）和 N:P 摩尔比（1:0.025 至 1:0.030）时，氨氮的去除，即鸟粪石沉淀效果最佳。X 射线衍射、热重分析和傅里叶变换-红外光谱证实了所得沉淀物中存在鸟粪石晶体。基于质量能量平衡原理和市场设备规格的技术经济评估（TEA）表明，建立一个中试规模的工厂，盈亏平衡期为 1.06 年，投资回报率为 94.28%。这清楚地说明了开发的工艺用于管理高氨负荷药物废水的工业应用的经济可行性。虽然需要进一步的具体技术改进以降低成本，但这项研究将为研究人员和行业提供指导，以选择目标市场，以降低成功实施的成本。
