Performance Evaluation of Cascade Separation for a Humic Substance and Nutrient Recovery from Piggery Wastewater toward a Circular Bioeconomy

Abstract

This study aims at developing adsorption-based cascade separation processes for recovering humic substances (i.e., humin, humic acid, and fulvic acid) and nutrients (i.e., nitrite and phosphate) from real piggery wastewater. The results indicated that both humin and humic acid in wastewater could be completely separated from wastewater by introducing alternate alkaline−acidic chemical extraction. Then, fulvic acid was recovered by ion-exchange adsorption, and the effect of resin-towastewater ratios and desorption stages on the recovery of fulvic acid was evaluated. The adsorbed fulvic acid could be almost completely recovered from resins after the fifth stage of desorption. The adsorption kinetics and isotherms for fulvic acid recovery were determined accordingly to obtain the key design parameters, such as rate constants and mass transfer coefficients. Moreover, the simultaneous adsorption of nitrite and phosphate (∼40%) by resins was found to occur, and the remaining nutrients in wastewater should be further recovered by other energy-efficient techniques. A preliminary analysis of economic potential was also conducted to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of the developed process. This study revealed that the developed adsorption-based cascade process exhibited a huge potential, in terms of technical feasibility and economic viability, in separating humic substances from piggery wastewater as biofertilizer products.

Application of artificial neural network and dynamic adsorption models to predict humic substances extraction from municipal solid waste leachate

“…Following HA isolation, only FA and the hydrophilic fraction remained. The FA in the MSWL was extracted using a fixed-bed column, and the remaining stream was a nutrient-rich solution 30 , 31 . Following adsorption, the resins enriched with FA must be subsequently regenerated by 0.1 M NaOH, and the performance of resin reusability was assessed in this work 32 .…”

Circular Economy of Water: Definition, Strategies and Challenges

“…Cascading combines multiple CE strategies (such as Recycle, Reuse and Recover) even in the water sector (see, e.g. [72]). It is therefore not always considered a strategy in the CE literature.…”

Noël, Pan, and Scown: 2022 Winners of the ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering Lectureship Award

“…Lectureship award winners are selected for three regions: The Americas, Europe/Middle East/Africa, and Asia/Pacific. The winners of the 2022 ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering Lectureship Award are as follows: Professor Timothy Noël of the Van’t Hoff Institute for Molecular Sciences at the University of Amsterdam (Amsterdam, The Netherlands), honored for his contributions to continuous flow chemistry, building tools that bridge chemistry and chemical engineering. − Professor Shu-Yuan Pan of the National Taiwan University (Taipei, Taiwan), honored for his contributions to the development of innovative circular technologies for waste valorization as biochemicals, green materials, and reclaimed water. − Dr. Corinne Scown of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California, Berkeley (California, USA), honored for her contributions integrating emerging technology development with rigorous technoeconomic analysis and life-cycle assessment. − …”

“…Professor Shu-Yuan Pan of the National Taiwan University (Taipei, Taiwan), honored for his contributions to the development of innovative circular technologies for waste valorization as biochemicals, green materials, and reclaimed water. − …”