Although struvite was briefly mentioned in Hooke's Micrographia,[5] it was first described in detail in 1845 by the German chemist Georg Ludwig Ulex [de] (1811–1883), who found crystals of struvite in what he surmised had once been a medieval midden in Hamburg, Germany; he named the new mineral after the geographer and geologist Heinrich Christian Gottfried von Struve [de] (1772–1851) of Hamburg.

In nature, it forms primarily in areas associated with organic matter decomposition, including guano deposits, basaltic caves, and marshlands.

[7] Struvite is occasionally found in canned seafood, where its appearance is that of small glass slivers, objectionable to consumers for aesthetic reasons but of no health consequence.

Struvite stones are potentiated by bacterial infection that hydrolyzes urea to ammonium and raises urine pH to neutral or alkaline values.

[citation needed] Although all types of urinary stones can potentially form staghorn calculi, approximately 75% are composed of a struvite-carbonate-apatite matrix.

Struvite can form a scale on lines and belts, in centrifuges and pumps, clog system pipes and other equipment including the anaerobic digester itself.

Having struvite scale in a wastewater treatment system can lead to great inefficiency within the plant or operation due to clogging of the pipes, pumps and equipment.

Even a chemical-free, electric method of removing and preventing struvite has been developed and tested successfully at wastewater treatment plants in the USA.