Strategies for the recovery of phosphorus in wastewater sludge

past

Master project and/or internship Summer/Fall 2023, ongoing

Context

The recovery of phosphorus from wastewate sludge is receiving increasing attention from academics and practitioners. Indeed, failing to recover it triggers water euthrophication which can have devastating effects in aquatic ecosystems. In this work, we want to study the different possibilities of handling sludge and remove, recover and eventually reuse phosphorus.

In this project, the student/intern will start by identfying the most relevant technologies for chemical, thermochemical and physical recovery of phosphorus. Some of the possible technologies have been modeled and developed at IPESE, that can be adapted for this project. New technologies will need to be modeled and inserted into the OSMOSE platform (developed by IPESE), which is a tool for the design, integration and optimization of energy system. The student will discuss and validate with the industrial partner the potential use of recovery technologies. The industrial partner will also provide relevant data for model validation and calibration.

The project

This project will be organised in the following steps.

  • Analysis and understanding of the research problem.
  • Modification and optimization of existing models.
  • Modeling of new technologies and recovery strategies
  • Integration with current operation.
  • Analysis of key performance indicators (costs, environmental impact, recovery rates, etc.)

Skills

  • Experience with flowsheeting software (e.g., Aspen Plus)
  • Understanding of energy integration and process optimization
  • Results interpretation and report writing
  • Coding skills in Python, Lua and AMPL would be an advantage.
  • Have followed one or more of the lectures: Modelling and Optimisation of Energy systems, Energy Conversion and/or Renewable Energy

Administrative

This project is a part of collaborative research work between IPESE (EPFL) and ENEVI. The project will be supervised by Rafael and Catarina from IPESE. If interested, please send us your CV, transcript of records and a short motivation letter.

Location

This research work will be conducted at EPFL Valais and ENEVI, in Sion. The project is remunerated

Supervisors

Rafael Amoedo, rafael.amoedo@epfl.ch Catarina Braz, catarina.braz@epfl.ch