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Effect of urea concentration on microbial Ca precipitation

2012    Isik, Mustafa; Altas, Levent; Ozcan, Samet; Simsek, Ismail; Agdag, Osman Nuri; Alas, Ali

High calcium concentrations are problematic, because they lead to clogging of pipelines, boilers and heat exchangers through scaling, or malfunctioning of aerobic and anaerobic reactors. Urea hydrolysis provides simultaneously a pH and CO2 increase, both of which are responsible of CaCO3 production. This study was carried out to determine urea concentrations between 5 and 20 mM on ureolytic mixed culture treating synthetic wastewater. The optimum urea concentration was found as 15 mM for effective calcium removal. This work showed the feasibility of urea-based microbial carbonate precipitation as an alternative Ca2+ removal technology. (C) 2012 The Korean Society of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.