Recovery of nutrients from sewage using zeolite-chitosan-biochar adsorbent: Current practices and perspectives

The recovery of nutrients especially from sewage shows a growing interest due to its capability in enhancing environmental and economic benefit. The nutrients such as N and P that are rich in sewage can be recovered to be used as fertilizers. Over the years, many natural adsorbents such as NZs, chitosan, and biochar have been investigated for nutrient recovery. However, those adsorbents have low mechanical strength as well as a low affinity towards various charged contaminants. Hence, grafting them into hybrid absorbents may enhance their adsorption capacity (AC) in nutrients removal. The nutrients that can be recovered are up to 96 %. This review summarizes the physical properties, performance in nutrient removal and recovery of NZs, chitosan, biochar, and respective hybrid adsorbents.

Automated summary

The review summarizes the physical properties, performance in nutrient removal and recovery of natural adsorbents and hybrid absorbents used for nutrient recovery. The recovery rate can be as high as 96%.