Direct and Complete Phosphorus Recovery from Municipal Wastewater Using a Hybrid Microfiltration-Forward Osmosis Membrane Bioreactor Process with Seawater Brine as Draw Solution

We report a hybrid microfiltration-forward osmosis membrane bioreactor (MF-FOMBR) for direct phosphorus recovery from municipal wastewater in the course of its treatment. In the process, a forward osmosis (FO) membrane and a microfiltration (MF) membrane are operated in parallel in a bioreactor. FO membrane rejects the nutrients (e.g., PO4(3-), Ca(2+), Mg(2+), etc.) and results in their enrichment in the bioreactor. The nutrients are subsequently extracted via the MF membrane. Phosphorus is then recovered from the nutrients enriched MF permeate via precipitation without addition of an external source of calcium or magnesium. The use of seawater brine as a draw solution (DS) is another novel aspect of the system. The process achieved 90% removal of total organic carbon and 99% removal of NH4(+)-N. 97.9% of phosphate phosphorus (PO4(3-)-P) was rejected by the FO membrane and enriched within the bioreactor. >90% phosphorus recovery was achieved at pH 9.0. The precipitates were predominantly amorphous calcium phosphate with a phosphorus content of 11.1-13.3%. In principal, this process can recover almost all the phosphorus, apart from that assimilated by bacteria for growth. Global evaluation showed an overall phosphorus recovery of 71.7% over 98 days.