Nutrient recovery technology for urban stormwater runoff

Overview

Urban stormwater runoff carries nutrients such as ammonium, nitrates, nitrites, and phosphates that fuel harmful algal blooms in receiving water bodies. PRD Tech has developed a complexation-based technology that captures these nutrients from runoff and enables their recovery as fertilizers, turning an environmental liability into a valuable agricultural input. The approach uses non-toxic, low-cost complexation materials deployed as pellets, offering a practical and economical pathway for nutrient recycling at municipal and industrial scales.

Technical specifications

• Complexation materials: Non-toxic, low-cost materials formulated as pellets for easy field deployment
• Target nutrients: Ammonium, nitrates, nitrites, and phosphates across a range of influent concentrations
• Performance: Fast complexation rates and adequate capacities demonstrated in bench-scale testing
• Recovery: High removal efficiencies for nutrient recovery, enabling reuse as fertilizer
• Underlying science: Models developed to describe the complete chemistry and mass transfer behavior of the complexation process
• Economics: Preliminary cost analysis indicates the materials are cost-effective relative to nutrient value and treatment benefits
• Outstanding validation needs: Performance in the presence of real-world co-contaminants such as dirt, oils, organics, and debris; effects of variable flowrates, concentrations, and stormwater periodicity; and combined stormwater-plus-wastewater effluent scenarios

Technology readiness level

The technology is currently at a mid-stage development level. Bench-scale laboratory testing has been completed, including evaluation of separation efficiencies, mass transfer rates, and economic feasibility across multiple nutrient concentrations. Complexation chemistry and mass transfer models have been developed and validated against laboratory data. The next critical step is field-scale validation using real stormwater runoff at multiple sites to assess the impact of co-contaminants, deployment methods, and operating variability. Successful field validation would position the technology for pilot-scale deployment and eventual commercialization.