(350d) Immobilization of Phosphate on Shrimp Shell Waste Hydrochar in the Form of Struvite

In the ever-growing economy of the world around us, it is seen that the amount of industrial phosphate in the world is starting to deplete, increasing the demand for phosphate production. Production of struvite is one of the means in which research is attempting to mend this dilemma. The question that ignited the flame of our research was the concept of making an environmentally friendly struvite that maximized phosphate absorption while also utilizing production waste. In this study, organic shrimp shells were utilized due to their organic nature and it affinity for phosphate. The prosses began by shrimp shell undergoing the prosses of hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) at 140, 170, and 200^oC to create a hydrochar. This hydrochar then underwent pyrolysis, via the utilization of a tube furnace, for a residence time of 1 hour for temperatures of 400, 600, and 800 ^oC in order to best enhance the phosphate absorption properties that were desired. The struvite produced were characterized by N₂ adsorption–desorption for surface porosity quantification, scanning electron microscopy for morphology appearance analysis, X-ray powder diffraction for crystallinity analysis, proximate and ultimate analysis for detailed chemical composition analysis and Fourier transform infrared to observe the functionality of the struvite. Finally, ion chromatography was utilized to quantify the amount of phosphate absorbed for the given struvite.