Mg2+/NH+4 and Mg2+/H+ ion exchange equilibrium in supersaturated systems for the struvite production

The recovery and recycling of phosphorous from effluents and wastewaters is one of the objectives of the modern environmental chemistry, this environmental concern has given rise to a new technological approach that permits the phosphorous recovery from the wastewaters to produce a high quality commercial fertilizer: Struvite, MgNH4PO4 center dot 6H(2)O. This process permits the sustainable management of this natural and no renewable resource (phosphate) and on the other hand avoids natural water pollution problems, improving the aquatic ecosystem quality. This paper, describes the very first experimental results after the planning of an exhaustive study for the determination of the principal thermodynamic parameters that determine the process feasibility for the struvite production using the Ion Exchange Isothermal Supersaturation Technique (IXISS).