PhD proposal defense of Utsav Shashvatt

Wednesday, February 6 at 2:00 PM

Technology Research Center (TRC), Room 206   

Nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorus, are critical inputs for sustaining large-scale agriculture. Decreasing natural phosphorus reserves and energy-intensive ammonia production threaten food, water, political, and economic security in the coming decades. For these reasons, I am investigating alternative sources for harvesting these nutrients from various waste streams. In this PhD project, I will employ a membrane-based process called Donnan dialysis (for the first time) to recover nutrients from human urine and poultry litter. My specific objectives are as follows: (1) to explore the impacts of wastewater chemistry on the recovery of phosphorus; (2) to recover struvite and potassium struvite using different draw solution chemistries; and, (3) to develop a continuous-flow, lab-scale reactor with tubular ion exchange membranes for nutrient recovery from real waste streams. These findings will be translated into development of Donnan dialysis-based, cost-effective nutrient recovery technologies for fertilizer production and environmental protection.