Ammonium Recovery from Manure Wastewater and Simultaneous Electrosynthesis Using Ammonium-Ion Selective Redox Material

Abstract

The environmental pressure due to greenhouse gas emissions and water contamination generated by livestock manure motivates the development of new approaches to reduce their environmental impacts and improve sustainability. Effective approaches to recover nutrients, especially ammonium, from manure wastewater to produce fertilizer are needed. Here we develop a new electrochemical strategy to achieve simultaneous ammonium recovery and electrochemical synthesis using potassium nickel hexacyanoferrate (KNiHCF) as the ammonium ion-selective redox material to mediate the processes. The KNiHCF electrode spontaneously uptakes ammonium (and K+) from manure wastewater with a nutrient (NH4 + and K+) selectivity of ~100% and effective reduction of chemical oxygen demand (COD). The subsequent electrochemical process achieves the co-production of NH4 +-rich fertilizers and value-added chemicals, such as H2 as a green fuel and H2O2 as a disinfectant, without expensive ion-exchange membranes. These results provide a new conceptual strategy and insights for distributed electrochemical resource recovery and on-demand electrochemical manufacturing that can improve agricultural sustainability.