EGU21-6188
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-6188
EGU General Assembly 2021
© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Investigating methods of phosphorus recovery from eutrophic lakes through hypolimnetic withdrawal and purification

Soila Silvonen1, Juha Niemistö2, Jerry Myyryläinen1, Simo Huotari3, Leena Nurminen1, Jukka Horppila1, and Tom Jilbert1
Soila Silvonen et al.
  • 1University of Helsinki, Ecosystems and Environment Research Program, Finland
  • 2Afry Management Consulting, Vantaa, Finland
  • 3University of Helsinki, Department of Physics, Finland

As global reserves of phosphorus (P) become scarce, recycling of P will be key to sustainable food production in future. The hypolimnetic withdrawal and purification circuit (HWPC) is a novel method that aims to remove and capture P accumulated in the near-bottom water of eutrophic lakes. Similar to the basic principle of wastewater treatment, the lake water is treated for the precipitation of P and other elements, and the formed particles are collected in a filtering unit while the purified water flows back into the lake. The method has been tested in a pilot project at Lake Kymijärvi, southern Finland.

In the current study, we observed the efficiency of three different water treatments in the HWPC in terms of P precipitation: 1) water aeration; 2) aeration + Ca(OH)2 addition; 3) aeration + tannin-based biopolymer addition. Moreover, we studied the chemical composition of the precipitate formed in each treatment to understand its potential for P recycling. The aim of the study was to provide a better understanding to further develop and apply techniques to recover and recycle P from eutrophic lakes.

How to cite: Silvonen, S., Niemistö, J., Myyryläinen, J., Huotari, S., Nurminen, L., Horppila, J., and Jilbert, T.: Investigating methods of phosphorus recovery from eutrophic lakes through hypolimnetic withdrawal and purification, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-6188, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-6188, 2021.

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