Recuperación de nutrientes primarios de los cauces acuáticos mediante procesos de intercambio iónico con supersaturación isotérmica (ixiss)

Resumen

Recovery and recycling of phosphorus from effluents and waste waters represents an important task of the modern environmental chemistry. The most interesting choice for the phosphate recovery from wastewaters is fixing it as a double phosphate, MgNH4PO4·6H2O, called struvite that can be used as a commercial quality fertilizer. This process will make easier the sustainable management of this natural resource (phosphate rock) and on the other hand, will also avoid the eutrophization problems of waters, improving the quality of the aquatic ecosystems. This paper describes the first results of the struvite synthesis by Ion Exchange Isothermal Supersaturation (IXISS) technique in column. The yield and the nature of the obtained crystals (X ray diffraction) using two different commercial ion exchangers have been evaluated. From these first conclusions future work is proposed, focused on the evaluation of real solutions and also the study of the environmental implications as well as the economic benefits and costs of its implantation at the Urdaibai Biosphere Reserve.