Phosphorus recovery: a need for an integrated approach

Abstract

Introduction: Phosphorus (P) is an essential element in food production. P consumption is increasing over the years due to increasing population and increasing demand for agricultural yields. Managing the agricultural P through the understanding of bioavailability, transport, and runoff will maximize the soil productivity and minimize the environmental effects. Efficient management in agriculture, governance, and lack of integrated international governance need to be addressed to overcome the P scarcity issue. Results and Discussions: This article is focusing one such efficient management of P resource addressing the major portion of phosphorus which is unnoticed in agricultural residues, manures, and other sources. Increasing cost of phosphate fertilizer, a scarcity of high-quality phosphate rock (PR), and increasing surface water pollution are driving a need to accelerate the recovery and reuse of phosphorus (P) from various waste sectors. Options to recover P occur all along the open P cycle from mining to households to oceans. However, P recovery as a regional and global strategy toward P sustainability and future food, bio energy, and water security are in its infancy because of a number of technological, socioeconomic, and institutional constraints. Resolving these constraints requires concerted collaboration between relevant stakeholders and an integrated approach combining successful business models with socioeconomic and institutional changes.

Keywords

• phosphorus
• recovery and reuse
• phosphatic fertilizers
• depletion
• eutrophication