Electrochemical Production of Fertilizer and Generation of Hydrogen from Model Wastewater

PROJECT NUMBER: 12

AUTHOR: Renee Park, Chemical and Biological Engineering

MENTOR: Andrew Herring, Chemical and Biological Engineering | MENTOR: Ivy Wu, Chemical and Biological Engineering

ABSTRACT

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Struvite is a commonly used phosphate fertilizer for agricultural use. One of the main goals of this research includes producing struvite from wastewater and farm runoff in order to preserve and recycle essential nutrients like phosphorus, which are being depleted from Earth at an alarming rate. The production of struvite and generation of hydrogen gas by manipulating a sacrificial magnesium anode was determined as a feasible electrochemical process that recovers nutrients from typical farm wastewater. The model wastewater maintained at a low pH precipitated struvite on the magnesium anode without any additional chemical additives or costs. Achieving a faradaic efficiency (FE) near 40%, simultaneous hydrogen production was also achieved. The ability to collect both struvite and hydrogen as valuable products of this electrochemical reaction offset the process costs. The composition of the final product may also be manipulated to form ammonia (struvite) or ammonia-free (newberyite) magnesium phosphate by manipulating the temperature of the reaction. Struvite typically forms under convection-dominating regimes, while newberyite forms under migration-dominating regimes. With a relatively high level of product composition control, this electrochemical process may effectively apply to a variety of different farming environments and other facilities with water runoff.

VISUAL PRESENTATION

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AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

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Renee Park is a senior majoring in Chemical and Biological Engineering, conducting research for her respective department. She has done research under Dr. Andrew Herring and graduate student Ivy Wu for over a year, and currently holds an internship with MolsonCoors. Her research primarily focuses on electrochemical processes including her MURF research topic of nutrient recovery and hydrogen gas generation.

Sponsored by Phillips 66