Trends of phosphorus recovery technology from sewage sludge ash by wet chemical method

Phosphorus (P) is a limited, essential, and irreplaceable nutrient for the biological activity of all the living organisms. Sewage sludge ash (SSA) is one of the most important secondary P resources due to its high P content. The SSA has been intensively investigated to recover P by wet chemicals (acid or alkali). Even though H2SO4 was mainly used to extract P because of its low cost and accessibility, the formation of CaSO4 (gypsum) hinders its use. Heavy metals in the SSA also cause a significant problem in P recovery since fertilizer needs to meet government standards for human health. Therefore, P recovery process with selective heavy metal removal needs to be developed. In this paper some of the most advanced P recovery processes have been introduced and discussed their technical characteristics. The results showed that further research is needed to identify the chemical mechanisms of P transformation in the recovery process and to increase P recovery efficiency and the yields.