Continuous leaching of phosphorus from sewage sludge ash

Sammanfattning: The global demand for food is increasing. Different nutrients are used to increase growth in agriculture and are thus essential for the world ́s food supply. An important and common nutrient is phosphorus. It can be mined, in the form of phosphate, from phosphate rock. The problem is that mining causes environmental problems and phosphate rock is a non-renewable resource. A risk is that phosphorus will become a scarce commodity in about 100 years.  Sewage sludge from wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) is rich in phosphorus. In Sweden and other European countries, a stricter legislation is expected with consideration of an increased recovery of phosphorus from sewage sludge. A ban on the spread of hazardous substances like drug residues and heavy metals from the sludge is also expected. Incineration of the sludge can be done to eliminate hazardous substances and at the same time recover phosphorus and metals. Development of technologies to recover phosphorus from incinerated sewage sludge is therefore topical.  EasyMining is a company that invents new technologies to close nutrient cycles. One of their present projects is about recycling phosphorus, iron, and aluminium from incinerated sewage sludge. Hydrochloric acid (HCl) is used to leach the ash and in the following steps metals and phosphorus are recovered, and heavy metals are removed. Batch experiments have been performed and EasyMining examines the process in a continuous stirred tank reactor (CSTR).  The aim with this project is to compare the batch and continuous process for the ash leaching step. The study was limited to investigate different residence times and liquid to solid ratios (L/S ratios) for the ash leaching step in the CSTR. To accomplish the aim, mainly experimental studies have been performed. A total of 14 runs have been conducted to investigate the continuous process. The residence times 10, 30 and 60 min and the L/S ratios 2.5, 3 and 3.5 ml/g were evaluated. The lab-set up consisted of a peristaltic pump to pump diluted HCl solution, a conveyor belt to dose the ash and a CSTR. The filtrate was analysed for phosphorus, iron, and aluminium with a spectrophotometer. Interpretation of the result was conducted after each run and the data was then compared to previous batch data from within the company. A paired t-test was used to evaluate if there was a significant difference in the mean values between different residence times and L/S ratios.  The result shows that the leching is very fast and longer residence times or higher L/S ratios do not result in higher yields for phosphorus, iron, or aluminium. There is no significant difference between the examined residence times or L/S ratios in the paired t-test. Data from the batch process shows that the investigated residence times and L/S ratios do not affect the yield. A more even distribution of the yields is obtained in the batch process compared to the continuous process. The less even distribution in the continuous process, probably depends on errors in the method and the equipment used in the process. For example, there were some problems with the ash dosing, which led to an inconstant L/S ratio in the runs. This affected the calculated yields significantly. Overall, the batch process results in slightly higher yields. This is especially the case when excluding high calculated yields in the continuous process, probably obtained because of an overdosing of the ash.