Technical and economical assessment of formic acid to recycle phosphorus from pig slurry by a combined acidification-precipitation process

Dissolution by acidification followed by a liquid/solid separation and precipitation of phosphorus from the liquid phase is one possibility to recycle phosphorus from livestock effluents. To avoid increase of effluent salinity by using mineral acids in the recycling process, the efficiency of two organic acids, formic and acetic acid, in dissolving the mineral phosphorus from piggery wastewater was compared. The amount of formic acid needed to dissolve the phosphorus was reduced three fold, compared to acetic acid. The amount of magnesium oxide needed for further precipitation was decreased by two with formic acid. Neither the carbon load nor the effluent salinity was significantly increased by using formic acid. An economical comparison was performed for the chemical recycling process (mineral fertilizer) vs. centrifugation (organic fertilizer) considering the centrifugation and the mineral fertilizers sold in the market. After optimisation of the process, the product could be economically competitive with mineral fertilizer as superphosphate in less than 10 years.