Recovery of nutrients, such as ammonia, from wastewater offers an attractive approach to increase the overall sustainability of waste management practices. Conventional wastewater treatment processes require significant energy input, while the useful form of nitrogen (ammonia), is lost. Ammonia, a major component of fertilizers, is manufactured using the Haber-Bosch process, which accounts for approximately 2% of worldwide energy demand. A better approach would efficiently capture ammonia directly from the wastewater. In this study, ammonia is recovered directly by using an electrically conducting gas-stripping membrane that is immersed into a wastewater reactor. By applying vacuum to the membrane, with cathodic potentials, ammonia gas is extracted directly from the water. The mechanism involves water electrolysis, which generates OH<sup>-</sup> ions, and transforms ammonium to ammonia that is stripped through the membrane. By engineering the surface and transport properties of the membrane 372g-N/m<sup>2</sup>/day of ammonia was recovered, with an energy consumption of 9.16kWh/Kg-N.

Highly efficient ammonia recovery from wastewater using electrically conducting gas-stripping membranes

2019 Fall National Meeting

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