An economic and environmental evaluation of the opportunities for substituting phosphorus recovered from wastewater treatment works in existing UK fertiliser markets

Limited supplies of naturally occurring phosphorus (P) resources and their decreasing purity, coupled with legislative pressure on water service compa nies to remove P from both their effluent and waste streams, has focused co nsiderable attention on recycling P recovered from domestic wastewater in e xisting P markets. In the context of the fertiliser industry there may be a number opportunities to substitute fertilisers based on P recovered as str uvtite for existing fertiliser products. An economic and environmental eval uation of such substitution opportunities suggests that providing high stru vite recovery rates can be achieved in relatively simple process configurat ions, and recovered materials are distributed to satisfy regional demand, t hey may offer the most effective economic and environmental use of resource s.