Removal of ammonium from human urine through ion exchange with clinoptilolite and its recovery for further reuse

Abstract

Ammonium, from separately collected human urine, had been removed through transfer onto the ammonium selective natural zeolite, clinoptilolite, through ion exchange. In the subsequent treatment steps of washing with tap water, ammonium removed from urine was eluted from the surface of the clinoptilolite to be recovered for further reuse. Different quantities of clinoptilolite were used for a survey of the capacity of the zeolite for the process and to identify removal efficiencies based on initial ammonium loads. The highest surface concentration attained under experimental conditions employed was 15.44 mg ammonium per gram of clinoptilolite for an initial concentration of 110 mg ammonia per litre, and the highest removal was 98%, obtained for a loading of 1 mg ammonium per gram clinoptilolite. In the subsequent elution process, better removals were observed as pH was increased and the highest removal was attained at pH 13. The recovery was calculated as 9.73 mg ammonium per gram of clinoptilolite, corresponding to an efficiency of 63% only through washing with tap water. The results have given positive indications for the possibility of using ion exchange with clinoptilolite for the removal of ammonium from human urine and an incentive for improving methods of elution for its recovery for further reuse.

The effect of initial loading on the removal of ammonium and potassium from source-separated human urine via clinoptilolite

“…In the literature, indirect use of urine for agricultural purposes as fertilizer has been reported after various modes of processing like struvite precipitation, adsorption/ ion exchange, freezing (Lind et al 2000;Ban & Dave 2004;Beler Baykal et al 2004;Kabdasli et al 2006;doi: 10.2166doi: 10. /wst.2009doi: 10.…”

“….614 Ganrot et al 2007doi: 10. , 2008Beler Baykal et al2009). One of the possible routes of indirect use of urine is processing with clinoptilolite to transfer plant nutrients onto the zeolite and then to recover them subsequently through desorption (Beler Baykal et al 2004;Beler Baykal et al 2009). The process has given positive results with overall recoveries exceeding 86% which is taken as a positive incentive for further research (Beler Baykal et al 2009).…”

Physical–Chemical Processes for Nitrogen Removal

“…The nutrient-rich fractions of wastewater that are the focus of nutrient recovery include urine (yellow water), feces (black water), kitchen waste, and anaerobic digester supernatant (Kirchmann and Pettersson, 1995;Kujawa-Roeleveld and Zeeman, 2006;Maurer et al, 2006). Recent examples of nitrogen recovery for use as fertilizer include source separation of human urine at a dormitory and application as liquid fertilizer on nearby field (Berndtsson, 2006), air stripping of ammonia from human urine to sulfuric acid to produce ammonium sulfate (Basakcilardan-Kabakci et al, 2007;Antonini et al, 2011), precipitation of magnesium ammonium phosphate (struvite) in anaerobic digester effluent and urine with application of struvite as slow-release fertilizer (Stratful et al, 2001;Kabdasli et al, 2006;Liu et al, 2008;Etter et al, 2011), and sorption of ammonium to clinoptilolite with application of ammonium-saturated clinoptilolite as slow-release fertilizer (Lind et al, 2000;Beler-Baykal et al, 2004. Liquid urine and urine treatment byproducts (struvite, ammonium-saturated zeolites) have been shown in many cases to be nearly as effective as commercial fertilizer for a wide range of plants (Ganrot et al, 2007;Heinonen-Tanski et al, 2007;Pradhan et al, 2007Pradhan et al, , 2009Germer et al, 2011).…”

Pretreating Stored Human Urine for Solar Evaporation by Low-Technology Ammonia Stripping

“…This is also the case when phosphate is separated from urine by anion exchange [14]. Additionally, zeolite adsorption [15] [16] and stripping [11] [17]- [19] of stored urine have been investigated for ammonia removal and recovery. However, other nutrients remain in the aqueous solution.…”