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Sustaining Resources for Tomorrow pp 67–81Cite as

Mining Phosphate from Wastewater: Treatment and Reuse

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Abstract

Phosphorus is essential for all living beings and it also serves as an important macro-nutrient for biological tissues. It is a vital element, needed to sustain food production and is widely used in the agricultural sector. However, phosphorus as a resource is limited, with estimates suggesting that the world supply could be depleted in a few decades. As a result, it will elevate the issues related to food production, and therefore, consideration of its recovery has become a focus of interest to researchers. Wastewaters from municipalities and some industries can contain high concentration of phosphorus which, if not treated, can cause eutrophication to receiving waters. In recent years, treatment and reuse of phosphate mining wastewater have been gaining considerable attention. The mining of phosphorus from raw phosphate rock (PR) can lead to air pollution, eutrophication in receiving waters, land degradation through phosphogypsum (emitted by stacks near the mining sites), and soil contamination. Recently, various treatment methods have been suggested to treat phosphorus-rich wastewaters. These include chemical precipitation, biological, combined chemical and biological treatment, and several wastewater and sludge-based methods. A brief description of these has been presented in this chapter.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Windsor, 401 Sunset Avenue, Windsor, ON, N9B3P4, Canada

    D. Mukherjee, R. Ray & N. Biswas

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  1. D. Mukherjee
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  2. R. Ray
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Correspondence to D. Mukherjee .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Turbulence and Energy Lab, University of Windsor, Windsor, ON, Canada

    Jacqueline A. Stagner

  2. Turbulence and Energy Lab, University of Windsor, Windsor, ON, Canada

    David S.-K. Ting

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Mukherjee, D., Ray, R., Biswas, N. (2020). Mining Phosphate from Wastewater: Treatment and Reuse. In: Stagner, J., Ting, DK. (eds) Sustaining Resources for Tomorrow. Green Energy and Technology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27676-8_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27676-8_3

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