To address the issues of eutrophication and the potential risk of phosphorus (P) shortage, it is essential to remove and recover P from P-containing streams to close this nutrient cycle. Electrochemical induced calcium phosphate (CaP) precipitation was shown to be an efficient method for P recovery. However, the influence of natural organic matter (NOM) is not known for this treatment. In this paper, the behavior of NOM and its effect on CaP precipitation was studied. In contrast to studies where NOM hindered CaP precipitation, results show that the interaction of NOM with CaP improves the removal of P, independent of the types of NOM. The P removal at the average increased from 43.8 ± 4.9% to 58.5 ± 1.2% in the presence of 1.0 mg L⁻¹ NOM. Based on the yellow color of the CaP product, NOM is co-precipitated. The bulk solution pH with and without buffers has totally different effects on the precipitation process. Without buffer, CaP precipitates on the cathode surface in a wide pH range (pH 4.0–10.0). However, the precipitation process is completely inhibited when the bulk solution is buffered at pH 4.0 and 6.0. This is probably due to neutralization of OH⁻ by the buffers. Regardless of the presence or absence of NOM and solution pH, the recovered products are mainly amorphous CaP unless the electrolysis time was increased to seven days with 4.0 A m⁻², in which crystalline CaP formed. These findings advance our understanding on the interaction of Ca, P and NOM species for the application of electrochemical method for P recovery from real wastewater.

为了解决富营养化和磷（P）短缺的潜在风险，必须从含P的流中去除和回收P以关闭该养分循环。电化学诱导的磷酸钙（CaP）沉淀被证明是回收磷的有效方法。但是，对于这种治疗方法，天然有机物（NOM）的影响尚不清楚。本文研究了NOM的行为及其对CaP沉淀的影响。与NOM阻止CaP沉淀的研究相比，结果表明NOM与CaP的相互作用可提高P的去除，而与NOM的类型无关。在1.0 mg L ^-1的存在下，平均P去除率从43.8±4.9％增加到58.5±1.2％NOM。根据CaP产品的黄色，NOM会共沉淀。带或不带缓冲液的本体溶液pH对沉淀过程的影响完全不同。在没有缓冲液的情况下，CaP会在较宽的pH范围（pH 4.0-10.0）内沉淀在阴极表面上。但是，当将大体积溶液缓冲在pH 4.0和6.0时，沉淀过程将被完全抑制。这可能是由于OH中和^-由缓冲器。无论是否存在NOM和溶液pH值，回收的产物主要为无定形CaP，除非在4.0 A m ^-2的条件下将电解时间延长至7天，其中形成结晶CaP。这些发现提高了我们对Ca，P和NOM物种之间相互作用的理解，从而应用电化学方法从实际废水中回收P。