I-Corps: Struvite Recovery for Organic Food Production

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The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the development of a technology to recover phosphate and ammonia in wastewater as struvite. Struvite is a slow-release compound fertilizer. This proposed technology may decrease the cost of wastewater treatment and improve the struvite recovery process. Struvite recovery from wastewater is a sustainable alternative to the industrial production of phosphorus fertilizers that have resulted in rapidly depleting natural phosphate rock reserves. As global supply chains of fertilizer have been disrupted, fertilizer prices have increased substantially, increasing the revenue of struvite recovery. Farming that does not use water-soluble fertilizers is anticipated to grow rapidly. Unlike the currently available organic fertilizers, the struvite fertilizers produced with this proposed technology have high nitrogen and phosphorus values.This I-Corps project is based on the development of mineral-based magnesium-based amendment materials and bio-based binding agents for cost-effective recovery of struvite from wastewater. When wastewater pH is raised and magnesium ions are supplemented in nutrient-rich wastewater, struvite precipitates form. This mineral is precipitated into granules in a crystallizer for product harvesting. The proposed struvite recovery technology uses minerals to recover phosphate and ammonia as powdery struvite, a natural fertilizer, and applies bio-based binding agents to quickly turn the struvite powder into granular organic fertilizer. The proposed technology integrates two low-cost minerals and a physical mineral activation method for simultaneous supplementation of magnesium ions and elevation of wastewater pH for formation of struvite powder. The discovery of bio-based binding agents for pelletizing struvite powder increases the production capacity. This technological may change the overarching strategy of wastewater resource recovery.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.