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Very little recovery is possible unless we separate urine streams at their source. Once mixed with the rest of the wastewater very little N is recoverable as has to go through the process and gets recovered in the sludge stage as struvite, etc. Phosphorus, OTOH, is more recoverable per unit.

Take a look at (PDF on Google): Nitrogen Recovery from Wastewater: Possibilities, Competition with Other Resources, and Adaptation Pathways

Jan Peter van der Hoek 1,2,* , Rogier Duijff 1 and Otto Reinstra 2

The most promising mature technologies that can be incorporated into existing wastewater treatment plants include struvite precipitation, the treatment of digester reject water by air stripping, vacuum membrane filtration, hydrophobic membrane filtration, and treatment of air from thermal sludge drying, resulting respectively in 1.1%, 24%, 75%, 75%, and 2.1% nitrogen recovery for the specific case wastewater treatment plant Amsterdam-West.

The effects on sustainability were limited. Higher nitrogen recovery (60%) could be realized by separate urine collection, but this requires a completely new infrastructure for wastewater collection and treatment.



Perhaps making pissoires as a public service and fertilizer recycler.




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