A comparative study on human urine and anaerobic septage supernatant by struvite precipitation

Abstract

Sustainable and closed-loop nutrient cycling require the recovery of valuable resources from wastewater. In comparison, source separated urine allows resource recovery from a highly concentrated nutrient stream, resulting in a more sustainable and efficient recovery practice. Different methods was studied in lab scale, but struvite precipitation was adopted. In this study the human urine sample was collected from men's restroom and the septage supernatant was pumped out from women's restroom septic tank inside the campus. Struvite precipitation was determined by crystal growth phases in- order to recover the by-product phosphate from human urine and septage supernatant. Human Urine resulted in higher efficiency than septage supernatant. Phosphorous was extracted from struvite precipitation and was used for the plant cultivation inside our campus premises.