Location: Water Management and Conservation Research
Project Number: 2020-13660-009-017-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: May 30, 2025
End Date: Sep 30, 2026
Objective:
Investigate potential economic value added products that could be made from desalination byproducts and evaporation pond precipitates. Two specific objectives will be:
1. Investigate the composition, both chemical and crystallographic, of solid residue obtained via evaporative concentration of brine obtained from different agriculturally derived sources .
2. Investigate the feasibility and kinetics of urea cocrystal formation using solid brine-derived materials from (1) using mechanochemistry to produce slow release fertilizers using nutrients reclaimed from waste streams.
Approach:
The project is motivated by the following fundamental research questions:
- Can concentrated solid brine contain enough macro and micronutrients, and in the right stoichiometry, to be reacted with urea or ammonium ions for sustainable fertilizer materials?
- Can urea cocrystals be obtained mechanochemically with concentrated brine product to serve as a sustainable and nitrogen-efficient fertilizer?