Production of struvite by magnesium anode constant voltage electrolytic crystallisation from anaerobically digested chicken manure slurry

Nitrogen and phosphorus levels in livestock manure and digestive fluid are high, posing a threat to soil and water quality and necessitating nutrient removal and recovery. Phosphorus recovery has the potential to alleviate the global phosphorus resource crisis. This study proposed a magnesium anode constant voltage electrolysis method to crystallise struvite (magnesium ammonium phosphate hexahydrate, MgNH4PO4·6H2O) from anaerobically digested chicken manure slurry using reaction kinetics at variable constant voltages ranging from 2 V to 12 V. The recovery of nitrogen and phosphorus was shown to be effective over a wide initial pH range (3.00 ± 0.03–7.90 ± 0.10) using synthetic digestion fluids. Moreover, the pH gradually increased during the reaction without any external chemical adjustments. The phosphorus recovery rates conformed to the first-order kinetic model, with a maximum rate constant of 2.13 h−1. When the best voltage of 2 V was used at 25 ± 1 °C, the recovery rate reached 5.24 mg P h−1cm−2 in the synthetic digestion fluids during 90 min and 4.60 mg P h−1cm−2 in the anaerobically digested chicken manure slurry. The crystalline products recovered were identified as high-purity struvite by XRD and XPS. The purity of recovered struvite with an initial pH of 3.00 and 7.90 was 96.5% and 98.9%, respectively. These results demonstrated that the magnesium electrode could rapidly react with nitrogen and phosphorus to generate high-purity struvite. •Struvite was produced by magnesium anode constant voltage electrolytic.•The phosphorus recovery process was well fitted to the first-order kinetic model.•The recovery rate of phosphorus was attained 5.24 mg h−1cm−2 at voltage of 2 V.•High purity struvite was obtained in a wide initial pH range of 3.0 ± 0.03–7.9 ± 0.1.