Proceedings

Nutrient recovery as struvite from biosolids and digestate sidestreams has been gaining popularity at
water resource recovery facilities (WRRFs). Struvite contains both phosphorus and nitrogen and is a
slow- release environmentally- friendly fertilizer. This practice offers many benefits including resource
recovery, production of a marketable end product, minimization of struvite scaling in the WRRF,
improvements in biosolids dewaterability, and reduction of the nutrient content, primarily P content of
treated biosolids. Beyond nutrients, other possible biosolids resource recovery opportunities exist
including the production of carbon-based commodities such as volatile fatty acids which can be a
feedstock to higher value commodity materials as these materials are already being produced as a
supplemental carbon source for biological nutrient removal systems within many WRRFs. This paper
will summarize studies completed by the Water Environment and Research Foundation (WE&RF)
exploring nutrient harvesting and the recovery of next-generation resources. The current status of
recovery technologies, research and development needs, and case studies will be presented.