Simultaneous Recovery Of Phosphorus And Nitrogen From Liquid Digestate By Vacuum Membrane Distillation With Permeate Fractional Condensation

A vacuum membrane distillation (VMD) process with permeate fractional condensation on membrane downstream has been developed for simultaneous recovery of phosphorus and nitrogen from liquid digestate. The polytetrafluoroethylene (ME) membrane flux could reach 6000 g . m(-2) . h(-1) with the rejection efficiency of total phosphorus (TP) over 0.99, under the condition of flowrate being 120 L . h(-1) and temperature being 40 degrees C. Membrane fouling occurred with a film of organics and microorganism deposited on the surface of the membrane. Membrane flux could be reversed after the membrane was rinsed by water. Higher feed temperature and flowrate could improve the membrane flux, while hardly affect the rejection efficiency of total phosphorus. The concentration of TP could reach 1600 mg.L-1 after membrane distillation, which is about 5 times of that in initial liquid digestate. On the downstream of the membrane, some of the permeate vapor was condensed under the vacuum condition and most of water was collected here. The remaining vapor enriched with total nitrogen (TN) was compressed and pumped to the atmospheric condition to condense. The TN concentration in atmospheric condensate was as high as 7000 mg.L-1 with the process separation factor for ammonia being enhanced to 114. (C) 2020 The Chemical Industry and Engineering Society of China, and Chemical Industry Press Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.