Enhancing chemical phosphorus precipitation from tapioca starch anaerobic digestion effluent in a modified pilot-scale fluidized bed reactor

Abstract

This study aimed to evaluate the possibility of P precipitation as struvite from real anaerobic digestion (AD) effluent of tapioca starch processing. The results showed that at a pH of 9, and without Mg:P molar adjustment, P recovery was at 85%. The percentage of P recovery was increased to 90% and P contained in precipitates was at 11.80–14.70 wt% P, which is higher than commercial single superphosphate fertilizer (SSP, 18–22 wt% P2O5). This was achieved by controlling mixing at 200–400 rpm and upflow velocity at 50–200 cm min−1 inside a fluidized bed reactor (FBR). Based on SEM-EDX, powder XRD, phase identification by profile matching, and FT-IR analysis, the results demonstrated that recovered precipitates formed struvite predominantly. In addition, results of the woodchip ash additions and the one-way ANOVA based-RSM analysis revealed that mixing, the solution pH, and the woodchip ash intensely affected P recovery with the optimum condition found at 400 rpm, pH9, 4 g L−1, respectively. Ash addition enhanced P recovery efficiency but decreased the product's purity. Total costs of P recovery varied considerably from 0.28 to 7.82 USD∙(kg P)−1 depending on chemical consumption and %P content in recovered products. Moreover, the total cost was reduced by 57% from 7.82 USD∙(kg P)−1 (profit margin: −4.30 to −2.82) by a single mixing operation to 3.35 USD∙(kg P)−1 (profit margin: +0.17 to +1.65) employing coupling effect of mixing and Vup. The results indicate that P recovery from tapioca starch AD effluent not only provides a good-quality alternative slow-release P fertilizer, but also helps to curtail environmental problems due to excessive P and nitrogen discharge. These findings also demonstrate the ways of recovering nutrients from an abundant renewable resource that are relevant to simultaneous waste utilization during pollution controls.