Patent ID: 7922897

Claim:
A fluidized bed reactor for use in removing solutes from wastewater, the reactor comprising a column comprising a substantially vertically oriented conduit having a harvesting section and at least two vertically sequential sections located above the harvesting section, a cross sectional area of the conduit increasing between adjacent ones of the sections; an inlet for wastewater in the column in or below the harvesting section; a recycling path extending from an outlet in an upper portion of the conduit to the inlet; and, a controller configured to control a supersaturation ratio for struvite, a struvite analog, or a phosphate compound to have a value within a desired range within the harvesting section by, at least in part, controlling a recycling ratio of a rate at which wastewater is being introduced into the column by way of the recycling path to a total rate at which wastewater is being introduced into the column wherein, in operation of said reactor, pellets comprising crystals of struvite, the struvite analog or the phosphate compound form a fluidized bed in the column and grow from said solutes, and said pellets are capable of being extracted from said harvesting section.