Phophorus and potassium recovery from cotton shell and sugarcane bagasse ashes

Abstract

The use of cotton shell and sugarcane bagasse to produce fuel in SODECOTON and SOSUCAM Cameroonian industries respectively has contributed to the production of a huge amount of ash, which can be used as raw material to produce fertilizer. The goal of this study is to assess the interaction effects of the physico-chemical parameters on the recovery performance of phosphorus and potassium. The results show that, taking individually, sulfuric acid concentration (X₁), time (X₂) and temperature (X₃) decreases the amount of recovered phosphorus from cotton shell ash (P_CSA) while X₁ and X₃ increase the amount of recovered phosphorus from sugarcane bagasse ash (P_SBA) and X₂ decrease P_SBA. Acetic acid concentration (Y₁), Stirring speed (Y₂) decrease the amount of potassium recovered from cotton shell ash (K_CSA) meanwhile Stirring time (Y₃) positively influences K_CSA and Y_1, Y₂, Y₃ increase the amount of potassium recovered from sugarcane bagasse ash (K_SBA)_. The results also revealed that the interactions X₁X₂, X₁X₃, X₂X₃ increase P_CSA. The interactions X₁X₂, X₁X₃, X₂X₃ decrease P_SBA. The interaction Y₁Y₂ negatively influences K_CSA while the interactions Y₁Y₃ and Y₂Y₃ positively influence K_CSA. The interaction Y₁Y₂ increases K_SBA while the interaction Y₁ Y₃ and Y₃Y₂ decrease K_SBA. The use of experimental design permits to understand the effect of physico-chemical parameters.