Nutrient recovery from waste
Kara Nelson, Professor
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Closed. This professor is continuing with Fall 2024 apprentices on this project; no new apprentices needed for Spring 2025.
Recovering nutrients from wastewater can solve two problems: reducing eutrophication by eliminating nutrient discharges to the environment, and producing a local fertilizer that has lower embedded energy than industrial fertilizer. Our research aims to produce fertilizer by concentrating ammonium from wastewater and urine using struvite precipitation (for phosphorus) and ion exchange coupled with reverse osmosis (for nitrogen)
Role: Tasks: The undergraduate researcher will assist with conducting laboratory experiments, collecting samples, and measuring water quality parameters. Student should be able to maintain a regular schedule in the laboratory.
Qualifications: The undergraduate researcher should be interested in water quality and be excited to learn new techniques. A background in environmental engineering or chemistry is a plus.
Day-to-day supervisor for this project: Utsav Shashvatt, Luis Anaya, Staff Researcher
Hours: 9-11 hrs
Engineering, Design & Technologies Biological & Health Sciences