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Author: Tanja Dohr

BMBF-funded measure RePhoR successfully draws up mid-term balance at status seminar in Frankfurt a. M.

BMBF-funded measure RePhoR successfully draws up mid-term balance at status seminar in Frankfurt a. M.

Keynote von Dr.-Ing. Luis Tercero Espinoza, Leiter des Geschäftsfeldes Rohstoffe am Fraunhofer-Institut für System- und Innovationsforschung (ISI). © SKYKAMERA/Det/TransPhoR
Keynote by Dr.-Ing. Luis Tercero Espinoza, Head of the Raw Materials Business Unit at the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research (ISI). © SKYKAMERA/Det/TransPhoR
Impressionen des Statusseminars. © SKYKAMERA/Det/TransPhoR
Impressions of the status seminar. © SKYKAMERA/Det/TransPhoR
Teilnehmende der Podiumsdiskussion: Dr. Marina Ettl, Dr. Stephanie Fischinger, Prof. Dr. Karl-Georg Schmelz, Herr Hans-Walter Schneichel, Prof. Dr.-Ing Johannes Pinnekamp, moderiert von Simone Apitz (v.l.n.r.). © SKYKAMERA/Det/TransPhoR
Participants in the panel discussion: Dr. Marina Ettl, Dr. Stephanie Fischinger, Prof. Dr. Karl-Georg Schmelz, Mr. Hans-Walter Schneichel, Prof. Dr.-Ing Johannes Pinnekamp, moderated by Simone Apitz (l.t.r.). © SKYKAMERA/Det/TransPhoR
Impressionen des Statusseminars: Podiumsdiskussion. © SKYKAMERA/Det/TransPhoR
Impressions of the status seminar: Panel discussion. © SKYKAMERA/Det/TransPhoR
Impressionen des Statusseminars: Podiumsdiskussion. © SKYKAMERA/Det/TransPhoR
Impressions of the status seminar: Panel discussion. © SKYKAMERA/Det/TransPhoR
Impressionen des Statusseminars: Posterausstellung. © SKYKAMERA/Det/TransPhoR
Impressions of the status seminar: Poster exhibition. © SKYKAMERA/Det/TransPhoR
Impressionen des Statusseminars: Posterausstellung. © SKYKAMERA/Det/TransPhoR
Impressions of the status seminar: Poster exhibition. © SKYKAMERA/Det/TransPhoR

On May 3 and 4, 2023, the seven BMBF-funded collaborative projects as well as the cross-cutting topics presented their respective status of work and interim results. The status seminar was organized and hosted by the scientific accompanying and transfer project TransPhoR. It marked the mid-term of the funding period and welcomed around 140 participants to the DECHEMA building in Frankfurt am Main.

The conference was opened by Dr.-Ing. Luis Tercero Espinoza, who introduced the criticality of phosphorus with a keynote speech on current developments in the raw materials market. In presentations by the project coordinators and those responsible for the overarching cross-cutting issues, as well as in the form of a poster exhibition, it was possible to present and discuss the work carried out to date by the funding measure. In a panel discussion, the question of the status and developments of phosphorus recycling in view of the legal requirements until 2029 was discussed. The first day was open to the professional public and offered not only funding recipients but also operators and participants from business, politics, administration and other interested parties the opportunity to learn more about the current state of phosphorus recycling.

On the second day, an internal RePhoR workshop took place in the form of a World Café, in which questions concerning products & markets, legal aspects, risk management and sustainability analysis were discussed in several rounds on a total of four topic tables. All presentations as well as the conference proceedings will be made available on the event page soon. We would like to thank all speakers, exhibitors and participants for the insights into their work and the constructive exchange.

All presentations as well as the conference proceedings will be made available on the RePhoR homepage in due course. We would like to thank all speakers, exhibitors and participants for the insights into their work and the constructive exchange.

Homepage of PhosRec GmbH in the AMPHORE project online 

Homepage der PhosRec GmbH im AMPHORE-Projekt online

PhosRec Phosphor-Recycling GmbH was founded in March 2020 by five public water boards from North Rhine-Westphalia for the purpose of jointly implementing the future mandatory phosphorus recovery.

Within the framework of the AMPHORE project, the shareholders want to assume joint responsibility via the GmbH for the planning, approval, construction and demonstration operation of a large-scale plant with the aim of phosphorus recycling from sewage sludge ash. The participating shareholders are Emschergenossenschaft, Ruhrverband, Wupperverband and Linksniederrheinische Entwässerungs-Genossenschaft (LINEG).

Now the homepage has been launched, which will provide regular information on the progress of construction and later on the operation of the demonstration plant of the AMPHORE project.

The site is available at https://phosrec.de/.

Social Hotspot Analysis on Primary P at S-LCA Conference

Social Hotspot Analysis on Primary P at S-LCA Conference

The International Conference on “Social Life Cycle Assssment” is the leading event on current methodological developments and best practices in the field of social sustainability assessment. In 2022, the 8th conference took place from September 5-8 in Aachen, Germany. Within a presentation block on “Interlinkages between S-LCA and Conflict Minerals or Critical Raw Materials Assessment”, a presentation on a social hotspot analysis on primary phosphorus was given by Dr.-Ing. Roland Meyer (INaB – Institute for Sustainability in Civil Engineering of RWTH Aachen University) of the transfer project TransPhoR. The findings from this lecture were developed in a master thesis and will also be used for the cross-sectional topic 2 “Sustainability Assessment” within the project RePhoR. The great interest in the lecture proves the importance of a holistic sustainability assessment. A publication on the topic is planned.

RePhoR will be represented at ESPC4

RePhoR will be represented at ESPC4

The 4th European Sustainable Phosphorus Conference (ESPC4) will take place between 20.06. – 22.06.2022 in Vienna. The BMBF-funded measure “Regional Phosphorus Recycling” (RePhoR) will be represented by FiW e.V. at RWTH Aachen University in a presentation of the joint and transfer project TransPhoR. On June 21, 2022 from 11:15 am – 12:45 pm, three parallel sessions will be offered with the topics “Emerging nutrient recovery technologies”, “Policies and regions for phosphorus sustainability” and “New fertilisers for nutrient sustainability”. The presentation on the funding measure RePhoR will be given by Sophia Schüller in the session ” Policies and regions for phosphorus sustainability”. The joint project DreiSATS will also be represented by Fraunhofer IKTS in the session “P-Recovery from Ash”.

RePhoR workshop successfully held in presence

RePhoR workshop successfully held in presence

As part of the BMBF funding measure “Regional Phosphorus Recycling” (RePhoR), a workshop was held on 18-19.05.2022 in hybrid form. Thereby, the first day was open to the public with presentations on the global perspective of P availability and recycling, as well as regarding the economics and the life cycle assessment and social consideration of the topic. In total, six speakers provided insights and were able to answer questions and discuss comments from both the present and digital audiences in three discussion blocks. The event was the first presence event since the beginning of the funding measure and therefore also served networking activities.

Figure 1: Development of prices for rock phosphate and triple super phosphate

The workshop was introduced by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Johannes Pinnekamp, Research Institute of Water Management and Climate Future at RWTH Aachen University, who presented an overview lecture on the classification of the funding measure. It was explained that phosphorus is classified as a critical raw material according to the definition of the EU and the necessity of P-recycling was presented.

In addition to the concentrated and dwindling availability of phosphate in Morocco, China and Russia, the current price development played an important role (Figure 1). The rapidly increasing import prices are so far unavoidable and could be reduced by using local resources in the sewage sludge.

A further introduction to the topic was given by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Markus Schröder, TUTTAHS & MEYER mbH, with a presentation on sustainable economic efficiency. In his lecture, Prof. Schröder went beyond the topic of phosphorus recovery to aspects of resource efficiency in the construction industry and, in particular, in the field of sewage treatment plant design.

Dr.-Ing. Roland Meyer, Institute of Sustainability in Civil Engineering (INaB), RWTH Aachen University, and Mr. Fabian Kraus, Kompetenzzentrum Wasser Berlin, then provided insights into the challenges of life cycle assessments accompanying projects. Here a balance has to be found between necessary simplifications to ensure the comparability of the LCAs and the procedural complexity of the different recycling technologies. Dr.-Ing. Maike Beier, Institute of Sanitary Engineering and Waste Management (ISAH), Leibniz University Hannover, took up the findings and applied them to practical challenges in regional planning. The lecture block was supplemented by the contribution of Ms. Anna Luthin, who addressed the social acceptance of secondary phosphorus products and presented initial results from a questionnaire campaign.

The second day was an internal workshop of the project partners and dealt with the cross-sectional topics of products, markets & legal aspects as well as sustainability assessment. There, the participants could also assign themselves to the respective topics in a hybrid format and communicate suggestions and wishes as well as ask open questions. In addition, the workshop on “Sustainability” discussed aspects and fixed them in binding assumptions that are required for the implementation of comparative life cycle assessments. The TransPhoR team noted down the comments in order to address existing problems.

A total of 104 people participated in presence or via Zoom and were able to facilitate a successful workshop with a lot of exchange.

RePhoR will be represented at IFAT 2022

RePhoR will be represented at IFAT 2022

The IFAT 2022 will take place between 30.05. – 03.06.2022 in Munich. The BMBF funding measure “Regional Phosphorus Recycling” (RePhoR) will be represented by FiW e.V. at RWTH Aachen University in a presentation of the joint and transfer project TransPhoR at the DWA Innovation Forum. There will be three sessions on 31.05.2022 with the topics “Closing Cycles”, “Climate Neutrality” and “Climate Adaptation”, whereby the presentation on the funding measure RePhoR will be held in the first session between 09:25 – 10:15. You can find further information on the homepage of DWA.

There will also be a BMBF booth at IFAT, where the BMBF will answer many questions about water research and water innovations. Additional information on this is available under the following link.

2nd law workshop of the BMBF funding measure RePhoR successfully took place

2nd law workshop of the BMBF funding measure RePhoR successfully took place

On Thursday, April 7, 2022, the second law workshop in the framework of the BMBF funding measure RePhoR took place. The four-hour event was open to the public and attracted great interest from external parties. A total of 87 people attended, representing each collaborative and sub-project of RePhoR, the steering committee, and external participants. The workshop was divided into three presentations and three discussion rounds each and created a basis for an informative exchange between participants and presenters through the speakers. Thematically, the law workshop dealt with the legal basis for the use and processing of sewage sludge for the production of fertilizers, as well as the terminology and classifications of waste and (by-)products. For this purpose, the Fertilizer Ordinance, the Waste Law and the Water Law were addressed and examined in more detail on the German as well as on the EU level. Mr. Hans-Walter Schneichel, Mr. Ludwig Hermann and Mr. Stefan Kopp-Assenmacher, who were able to provide theoretical as well as practical assistance due to their many years of experience, helped with the understanding. Furthermore, the project coordinator Hanna Evers of the collaborative project AMPHORE presented the legal issues that arose in the course of the project and which are still open, thus driving an exchange between the projects to identify common problems.

The workshop was organized and conducted by the networking project TransPhoR through FiW e.V. at RWTH Aachen University. The presentation slides of the speakers are available under the following link: 
https://www.bmbf-rephor.de/veranstaltungen/2-rechtsworkshop-rephor/

RePhoR-Participation at the 55th Essener Tagung

RePhoR-Participation at the 55th Essener Tagung

From 09th to 11th March 2022, the 55th Essen Conference on Water Management will be held virtually. It deals with water management in climate change as well as digitalization and innovative technologies in water management. An essential component is wastewater treatment and phosphorus recycling. In the block “Sewage Sludge / Phosphorus Recycling” on 11.03.2022, the joint project AMPHORE and the networking project TransPhoR will be represented for the funding measure RePhoR with the following contributions:

  • Overview of the status of the funding measure RePhoR, networking and transfer project TransPhoR (Prof. Dr. J. Pinnekamp, FiW at RWTH Aachen e.V.).
  • Phosphorus recovery in Germany’s largest conurbation – the AMPHORE demonstration project (H. Evers, Dr. Y. Schneider, Ruhrverband; J.-H. Ehm, RWTH Aachen)
Further information on the conference programme can be found here.
 

New German government program for water research

New German government program for water research

On the occasion of this year’s World Water Day on March 22nd, Federal Research Minister Anja Karliczek published the new, interdepartmental program “Water: N – Research and Innovation for Sustainability.” The government program is part of the FONA strategy “Research for Sustainability” and forms the framework concept for funding future water research for the next five years.

Due to global climatic changes and the growing challenges associated with them, such as falling groundwater levels, the conscious use of water as a vital resource is also becoming increasingly important in Germany. To meet these challenges, according to Karliczek, cross-sectoral water research is needed that can provide the necessary knowledge, innovative concepts and new technologies. Important priority topics of Water: N include: clean water, urban water infrastructures, intact ecosystems, resource-efficient water cycles, optimized water management and extreme water events.

The publication of the new government program also marks the launch of the free online “Water Innovation Atlas”, which presents innovative and current products from BMBF-funded water research. These products include processes, technologies, management concepts as well as educational materials and software tools for the sustainable use of water as a resource.

Further information on the new government program “Water: N – Research and Innovation for Sustainability” as well as the “Innovation Atlas Water” can be found at the following links (English sides in progress):

Water Research:
www.bmbf.de/wasser
https://www.fona.de/de/themen/wassermanagement.php

Innovation Atlas Water:
https://www.innovationsatlas-wasser.de/de/