Back to results
US 10,329,206 B2Granted
Nutrient extraction and recovery device for isolation and separation of target products from animal produced waste streams
AssigneeUniversity of Maryland, Baltimore County
InventorLee Blaney
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The present invention provides for nutrient extraction and recovery devices that use the Donnan Membrane Principle (DMP) to cause spontaneous separation of dissolved ions along electrochemical potential gradients, wherein anions and cations such as H2PO4−, HPO42−, PO43−, Mg2+, Ca2+, NH4+, and K+ are moved from manure containing waste streams through cation and anion exchange membranes into a recovery stream thereby precipitating target compounds including but not limited to struvite, potassium struvite and hydroxyapatite.
Claims16
A process for treating manure in order to isolate a target precipitate, the process comprising:
- a) providing a manure medium;
- b) introducing the manure medium into a separating system comprising:
- a waste compartment and a recovery compartment positioned within the waste compartment, wherein the recovery compartment comprises at least one cation exchange membrane and at least one anion exchange membrane, wherein the at least one cation exchange membrane and the at least one anion exchange membrane are positioned on opposite or adjacent sides on the recovery compartment, and wherein the recovery compartment comprises an inlet and outlet for moving a recovery stream therethrough, and wherein the recovery stream comprises an ionic solution comprising at least one cation and at least one anion, wherein the at least one cation is selected from the group consisting of Na+, K+, and NH4+, and the at least one anion is selected from the group consisting of HPO42− Cl−, HO−, HCO3−, and HCOO−;
- and
- c) moving the manure medium into the waste compartment, wherein the manure medium contacts both the at least one cation exchange membrane and the at least one anion exchange membrane, wherein anions in the manure medium will pass through the anion exchange membrane into the recovery stream and cations in the manure medium will pass through the cation exchange membrane into the recovery stream, wherein ions in the recovery stream form a precipitate.
2 more elements
A process for treating manure in order to isolate at least one target precipitate, the process comprising:
- providing a manure medium;
- introducing the manure medium into a recovery system comprising:
- a first and second waste compartment and a recovery compartment positioned between the first and second waste compartments, wherein the first and second waste compartments comprise an inlet and outlet for moving a first and second waste stream therethrough, respectively, wherein the recovery compartment comprises an inlet and outlet for moving a recovery stream therethrough, and wherein the first waste compartment is separated from the recovery compartment by at least one anion exchange membrane and the second waste compartment is separated from the recovery compartment by at least one cation exchange membrane;
- separating the manure medium into the first and second waste streams for introducing into the inlet of the first and second waste compartments, respectively;
- introducing an ionic solution comprising at least one cation and at least one anion, wherein the at least one cation is selected from the group consisting of Na+, K+, and NH4+, and the at least one anion is selected from the group consisting of HPO42− Cl−, HO−, HCO3−, and HCOO− into the recovery stream, wherein anions in the first waste stream will pass through the at least one anion exchange membrane into the recovery stream and cations in the second waste stream will pass through the at least one cation exchange membrane into the recovery stream, wherein a substantially equal amount of cations and anions from the recovery stream will move into the respective first and second waste stream, and wherein ions in the recovery stream form a precipitate comprising struvite, potassium struvite and/or hydroxyapatite thereby reestablishing an electrochemical potential gradient across the at least one cation and at least one anion exchange membranes to provide for additional movement of ions through the anion and cation exchange membranes thereby forming additional precipitate.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.