Our study titled “Donnan dialysis for phosphate recovery from diverted urine” has been published in Water Research.
There is a critical need to shift from existing linear phosphorous management practices to a more sustainable circular P economy. Closing the nutrient loop can reduce our reliance on phosphate mining, which has well-documented environmental impacts, while simultaneously alleviating P pollution of aquatic environments from wastewater discharges that are not completely treated. The high orthophosphate content in source-separated urine offers propitious opportunities for P recovery. In this study, we investigate the recovery of orthophosphate from simulated urine using Donnan dialysis (DD), an ion-exchange membrane-based process, driven by widely available and low-cost/waste resources with high chloride content to enhance sustainability of the process.
