Type
ArticleAuthors
Son, Moon
Kolvek, Eric

Kim, Taeyoung

Yang, Wulin

Vrouwenvelder, Johannes S.

Gorski, Christopher A.

Logan, Bruce

KAUST Department
Environmental Science and Engineering ProgramWater Desalination and Reuse Research Center (WDRC)
Biological and Environmental Sciences and Engineering (BESE) Division
KAUST Grant Number
OSR-2017-CPF-2907-02Date
2020Embargo End Date
2021-04-16Submitted Date
2020-01-05Permanent link to this record
http://hdl.handle.net/10754/664941
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Ammonium is typically removed from treated wastewaters before discharge by converting it to nitrogen gas, but its capture and reuse could provide a new strategy for energy recovery at treatment plants. A three-stage electrochemical approach was developed here to selectively remove and concentrate ammonium derived from wastewater. Each stage contained a battery electrode deionization (BDI) cell containing two copper hexacyanoferrate (CuHCF) electrodes separated into two channels using an anion exchange membrane. Through application of a low applied voltage (0.3 V) in each of the three stages, ammonium was concentrated greater than 6 times, from 5 to 32 mM (90 to 576 mg L-1), with minimal changes in the concentration of other cations (Na+, K+, Mg2+, and Ca2+) present in the water due to the high ammonium ion selectivity of CuHCF electrodes under these operating conditions. The cumulative energy use for the three-stage process was only 2.0 kW h per kg-N, compared to the 14 kW h per kg-N that would be needed to manufacture this amount of ammonium from nitrogen gas. Nitrogen recovery methods such as these will be needed to further transform used water plants into more effective resource recovery treatment plants.Citation
Son, M., Kolvek, E., Kim, T., Yang, W., Vrouwenvelder, J. S., Gorski, C. A., & Logan, B. E. (2020). Stepwise ammonium enrichment using selective battery electrodes. Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology, 6(6), 1649–1657. doi:10.1039/d0ew00010hSponsors
This research was supported by the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) (OSR-2017-CPF-2907-02) and Penn State University.Publisher
Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC)Additional Links
http://xlink.rsc.org/?DOI=D0EW00010Hae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1039/d0ew00010h