Precipitation strategy of struvite-family crystals is presented in this paper to recover phosphate and potassium from a synthetic wastewater in the presence of citric acid at elevated temperature. The crystal-forming solutions were prepared from crystals of MgCl₂ and NH₄H₂PO₄ with a molar ratio of 1:1:1 for Mg⁺², , and , and the citric acid (C₆H₈O₇) was prepared (1.00 and 20.00 ppm) from citric acid crystals. The Rietveld analysis of X-ray powder diffraction pattern confirmed a mixed product of struvite, struvite-(K), and newberyite crystallized at 30°C in the absence of citric acid. In the presence of citric acid at 30° and 40°C, an abundance of struvite and struvite-(K) were observed. A minute impurity of sylvite and potassium peroxide was unexpectedly found in certain precipitates. The crystal solids have irregular flake-shaped morphology, as shown by scanning electron microscopy micrograph. All parameters (citric acid, temperature, pH, Mg/P, and N/P) were deliberately arranged to control struvite-family crystals precipitation.

Scaling of calcium carbonate (CaCO3) is commonly found in piping systems in oil, gas, desalination and other chemical processes. The scale may create technical problems, leading to the reduction of heat transfer, increase of energy consumption and unscheduled equipment shutdown. This paper presents crystallization scaling experiments and evaluation of the effect of Cu2+ additives on the induction time and calcium carbonate transformation. The crystals precursors were prepared using equimolar of CaCl2 and Na 2CO3 resulted in concentrations of 3000 ppm Ca2+ in the solution. The Cu2+ in amounts of 0, 1 and 10 ppm was separately added in the solution. The flow rates (20, 35, and 60 mL/min) and elevated temperatures (27, 35 and 45°C) were selected in the study. The induction time for crystallization of CaCO3 was observed by measuring the solution conductivity over time, while the phase transformation of calcium carbonate was examined by XRD method and SEM/EDX. It was found that the conductivity remained steady for a certain period reflecting to the induction time of crystal formation, and then decreased sharply afterwards,. The induction time was increased from 34 and 48 minutes in the presence of Cu additives (1 and 10 ppm), depending on the flow rates and temperature observed. In all the experiments, the Cu2+ addition leads to the reduction of mass of crystals. Apparently, the presence of Cu2+ could inhibit the CaCO3 crystallization. In the absence of Cu2+ and at elevated temperature, the crystals obtained were a mixture of vaterite and calcite. In the presence of Cu2+ and at elevated temperature, the crystals formed were aragonite and calcite. Here, the presence of Cu2+ additives might have controlled the crystal transformation of CaCO3.