Recovery of Inorganic Phosphorus Using Copper-Substituted ZSM-5

Unmet Need
The past two decades have brought the idea of sustainability to the forefront of society. Many issues in the academic realm have had problems in being solved as they are not sustainable for the environment. One example of this is the separation of phosphorous from aqueous solutions. Dissolved phosphate is a primary source of water contamination originating from industrial wastewater or agricultural runoffs. In addition, the presence of high levels of phosphate in ponds, rivers and lakes can lead to eutrophication, threatening the existence of fish and other aquatic life. Currently, the most common method of phosphorous separation is chemical precipitation. This method consumes valuable feedstocks such as ammonia and magnesium salts, and it must be done in high pH conditions that are challenging to perform in their current design. There needs to be a phosphorous separation technique that is efficient, cost effective, does not require too many valuable resources, and keeps the sustainability of Earth life.
 
Technology Overview
The inventors have proposed an innovative design for removing the dissolved phosphate from aqueous solution. This design is copper-substituted Zeolite Socony Mobil-5 (Cu-ZSM-5), in which it is used as sorbents for the recovery of inorganic phosphates from solutions. Essentially what occurs is Cu-ZSM-5 is used to capture the phosphates in the aqueous solutions, and then they are placed in brine solution which allows for the safe and efficient release of phosphates. This works by utilizing the ideas of anion and cation exchange that can occur from the framework being moved to a negative charge from the chemical reaction. This allows for the observed to be very efficient (>90% overall recovery efficiency) and is a promising method for environmental mitigation and the recovery an essential nutrient in fertilizers.
 
Stage of Development
The inventors have proposed a compound that can be used to recover inorganic phosphorous efficiently and sustainably. They have applied for  patents and have received NIH funding to continue their research.
 
Publications
Manto, M.J. et al. ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng., 2017, 5 (7), pp. 6192-6200
 

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