The abatement of nutrient compounds from aqueous waste and wastewater is currently a priority issue. Indeed, the uncontrolled discharge of high levels of nutrients into water bodies causes serious deteriorations of environmental quality. On the other hand, the increasing request of nutrient compounds for agronomic utilizations makes it strictly necessary to identify technologies able to recover the nutrients from wastewater streams so as to avoid the consumption of natural resources. In this regard, the removal and recovery of nitrogen and phosphorus from aqueous waste and wastewater as struvite (MgNH₄PO₄·6H₂O) represents an attractive approach. Indeed, through the struvite precipitation it is possible to effectively remove the ammonium and phosphate content of many types of wastewater and to produce a solid compound, with only a trace of impurities. This precipitate, due to its chemical characteristics, represents a valuable multi-nutrients slow release fertilizer for vegetables and plants growth. For these reasons, the struvite precipitation technology constantly progresses on several aspects of the process. This manuscript provides a comprehensive review on the recent developments in this technology for the removal and recovery of nutrients from aqueous waste and wastewater. The theoretical background, the parameters, and the operating conditions affecting the process evolution are initially presented. After that, the paper focuses on the reagents exploitable to promote the process performance, with particular regard to unconventional low-cost compounds. In addition, the development of reactors configurations, the main technologies implemented on field scale, as well as the recent works on the use of struvite in agronomic practices are presented.

Nitrate is a widespread water contaminant that can pose environmental and health risks. Various conventional techniques can be applied for the removal of nitrate from water and wastewater, such as biological denitrification, ion exchange, nanofiltration, and reverse osmosis. Compared to traditional methods, the chemical denitrification through zero-valent metals offers various advantages, such as lower costs, simplicity of management, and high efficiencies. The most utilized material for chemical denitrification is zero-valent iron (ZVI). Aluminium (ZVA), magnesium (ZVM), copper (ZVC), and zinc (ZVZ) are alternative zero-valent metals that are studied for the removal of nitrate from water as well as from aqueous solutions. To the best of our knowledge, a comprehensive work on the use of the various zero-valent materials that are employed for the removal of nitrate is still missing. Therefore, in the present review, the most recent papers concerning the use of zero-valent materials for chemical denitrification were analysed. The studies that dealt with zero-valent iron were discussed by considering microscopic (mZVI) and nanoscopic (nZVI) forms. For each Fe⁰ form, the effects of the initial pH, the presence or absence of dissolved oxygen, the initial nitrate concentration, the temperature, and the dissolved ions on the nitrate removal process were separately evaluated. Finally, the different materials that were employed as support for the nanoparticles were examined. For the other zero-valent metals tested, a detailed description of the works present in the literature was carried out. A comparison of the various features that are related to each considered material was also made.

The composting process of organic fraction of municipal solid waste, besides to the residual compost, generates a wastewater that is characterized by a high organic load. The application of anaerobic processes represents an advantageous solution for the treatment and valorization of this type of wastewater. Nevertheless, few works have been focused on the anaerobic digestion of compost leachate. To overcome this dearth, in the present paper an extensive experimental investigation was carried out to develop and analyse the anaerobic treatment of young leachate in completely stirred tank reactors (CSTR). Initially, it was defined a suitable leachate pretreatment to correct its acidic characteristics that is potentially able to inhibit methanogenic biomass activity. The pretreated leachate was fed to the digester over the start-up phase that was completed in about 40 days. During the operational period, the organic load rate (OLR) changed between 4.25 kg_COD/m³d and 38.5 kg_COD/m³d. The chemical oxygen demand (COD) abatement was higher than 90% for OLR values up to 14.5 kg_COD/m³d and around to 80% for applied loads equal to 24.5 kg_COD/m³d. At this OLR, it was reached the maximum daily biogas production of about 9.3 L_biogas/(L_reactord). The CH₄ fraction was between 70%–78% and the methane production yield in the range 0.34–0.38 LCH₄/g_CODremoved. The deterioration of biogas production started for OLR values that were over the threshold of 24.5 kg_COD/m³d when a volatile fatty acids (VFA) accumulation occurred and the pH dropped below 6.5. The maximum ratio between VFA and alkalinity (ALK) tolerable in the CSTR was identified to be 0.5 gCH₃COOH/gCaCO₃. Through an economic analysis, it was proven that the digestion of compost leachate could ensure significant economic profits. Furthermore, the produced digestate had characteristics that were compatible for agricultural applications.

Anaerobic digestion (AD) represents an advantageous solution for the treatment and valorization of organic waste and wastewater. To be suitable for energy purposes, biogas generated in AD must be subjected to proper upgrading treatments aimed at the removal of carbon dioxide and other undesirable gases. Pressurized anaerobic digestion (PDA) has gained increasing interest in recent years, as it allows the generation of a high-quality biogas with a low CO₂ content. However, high pressures can cause some negative impacts on the AD process, which could be accentuated by feedstock characteristics. Until now, few studies have focused on the application of PAD to the treatment of real waste. The present work investigated, for the first time, the performance of the pressurized anaerobic digestion of raw compost leachate. The study was conducted in a lab-scale pressurized CSTR reactor, working in semi-continuous mode. Operating pressures from the atmospheric value to 4 bar were tested at organic loading rate (OLR) values of 20 and 30 kg_COD/m³d. In response to the rise in operating pressure, for both OLR values tested, a decrease of CO₂ content in biogas was observed, whereas the CH₄ fraction increased to values around 75% at 4 bar. Despite this positive effect, the pressure growth caused a decline in COD removal from 88 to 62% in tests with OLR = 20 kg_COD/m³d. At OLR = 30 kg_COD/m³d, an overload condition was observed, which induced abatements of about 56%, regardless of the applied pressure. With both OLR values, biogas productions and specific methane yields decreased largely when the pressure was brought from atmospheric value to just 1 bar. The values went from 0.33 to 0.27 L_CH4/g_CODremoved at 20 kg_COD/m³d, and from 0.27 to 0.18 L_CH4/g_CODremoved at 30 kg_COD/m³d. Therefore, as the pressure increased, although there was an enhanced biogas quality, the overall amount of methane was lowered. The pressured conditions did not cause substantial modification in the characteristics of digestates.