Ammonium recovery from municipal wastewater by ion exchange: Development and application of a procedure for sorbent selection

Ion exchange represents one of the most promising processes for ammonium recovery from municipal wastewater (MWW). However, previous studies on ion did not optimize process or evaluate its robustness under real operational conditions. This experimental study aimed at (i) developing a procedure selection sorbent selective removal/recovery MWW, (ii) validating by applying it to several sorbents, (iii) performing preliminary optimization and assessment with selected sorbent. The application natural synthetic zeolites cation resin confirmed that batch isotherm tests need be integrated continuous-flow tests. sorbent, mixture Chabazite Phillipsite, resulted in high performances terms capacity (33 mgN gdry resin−1), operating (5.2 yield (78–91%) selectivity towards ammonium. stable during 7 adsorption/desorption cycles conducted MWW treatment plant effluents 60-cm column. switch highly saline effluent produced hotspot seawater intrusion determine significant changes performances. Contact time was reduced 6 min without any decrease Potassium – well tolerated crops as regenerating agent, perspective produce desorbed product re-used fertilizer. shows Chabazite/Phillipsite has recover circular economy approach.