Research
Recovery of Phosphorus from Sewage Sludge through Pyrolysis and its Reuse
Introduction
Phosphorus is a non-renewable resource mined through phosphate rocks and is an important nutrient element for plants. Much of this nutrient ends up in municipal wastewater (MWW) and disposal of untreated nutrient rich wastewater causes eutrophication in water bodies. Therefore, there is urgent need to recover and reuse phosphorus from sewage treatment plants and protect the phosphate reserves for longer time.
Conventional wastewater treatment is based on the removal of pollutants from wastewater. Nutrient recovery from wastewater makes it sustainable and can also provides valuable products. In sewage treatment plants (STPs) having biological secondary treatment, majority of phosphorus (P) is assimilated in the secondary sludge. Recovering P from this sludge and reusing in agriculture will close the one way anthropogenic cycle of P from reserves to ocean and will contribute to circular economy.
My research is based on the recovery of phosphorus from sewage sludge through pyrolysis to make valuable product to be used in agriculture.
Thesis Supervisor:
Email: pbose@iitk.ac.in