Aktuelles Archive - Page 2 of 3 - Regionales Phosphor-Recycling

KlimaPhoNds takes 2nd place at the Göttingen Region Innovation Award

7. December 202312. December 2023

KlimaPhoNds takes 2nd place at the Göttingen Region Innovation Award

The RePhoR project came second out of more than 30 competitors in the “Companies with more than 20 employees” category of this year’s Göttingen Region Innovation Award.

The Göttingen Region Innovation Award has been presented by the Wirtschaftsförderung Region Göttingen (WRG) since 2003 in order to publicize and promote the region’s innovation potential. Since then, innovations from companies and start-ups have been honored annually with total prizes of 30,000 euros. In 2023, the city of Göttingen itself was an official cooperation partner of the competition for the first time.

The award ceremony took place on November 21 at the Deutsches Theater Göttingen as a festive gala.

KlimaPhoNds aims to recover recyclable materials at wastewater treatment plants in a climate-friendly and resource-saving way. The focus is on the recovery of the critical raw material phosphorus, but nitrogen and magnesium are also to be returned to the material cycle using the developed process. Phosphorus is recovered as magnesium ammonium phosphate (MAP) at the wastewater treatment plant, which is refined into high-quality phosphoric acid, ammonia water and magnesium chloride. In addition, the direct use of MAP as a recycling fertilizer is being investigated. The low-phosphate sewage sludge is dried using almost heat-neutral fluidized bed evaporation drying and can then be used as an energy source or as a material in the cement industry. The process was developed for sewage treatment plants with at least partial bio-P elimination; complete bio-P elimination is not absolutely necessary. The large-scale process demonstration will take place in full flow at the Northeim wastewater treatment plant. After the plant is expected to be commissioned in summer 2024, a one-year operating phase will demonstrate for the first time that phosphorus can be recovered economically and in compliance with the prescribed limit value at wastewater treatment plants.

You can find more information about the innovation prize at the following link.

Process engineering exchange on struvite precipitation

30. November 202315. February 2024

Process engineering exchange on struvite precipitation

The research project P-Net is planning the event “Struvite precipitation as an attractive variant of phosphorus recovery – An offer to exchange process engineering experience” on Thursday, February 22, 2024 at the Steinhof sewage treatment plant near Braunschweig.

With this event, the project P-Net would like to focus on the various possibilities of phosphorus digestion and its subsequent recovery via precipitation. Recently, there have been major steps in process engineering development in this area. These will be examined, classified and discussed together. In a joint discussion, we will discuss how these developments can be further supported and promoted with regard to process engineering issues, the products and markets concerned and also through joint lobbying and networking.

Registration is closed. Please find the program here. Contact information is pnet@isoe.de.

RePhoR at the 9th P-RÜCK congress

29. November 20235. December 2023

RePhoR at the 9th P-RÜCK congress

From November 22–23, 2023, the DWA-Landesverband Baden-Württemberg held the 9th congress “Phosphorus – A critical raw material with a future” in Stuttgart. The thematically diverse event addressed various aspects of phosphorus recycling on topics such as recycling management, strategies and concepts or phosphorus recovery processes. Dr. Roland Meyer presented the sustainability aspect of phosphorus recycling. The presentation specifically addressed the cross-cutting topic 2 “Sustainability assessment” of the BMBF funding measure RePhoR. RePhoR was already mentioned at the beginning of the congress in an introductory speech by Prof. Pinnekamp, which made it possible to introduce the project to a broad specialist audience.

6th RePhoR steering committee meeting in Frankfurt a. M.

9. November 20235. December 2023

6th RePhoR steering committee meeting in Frankfurt a. M.

On 09.11.23, the RePhoR steering committee meeting took place on the grounds of Industriepark Höchst in Frankfurt am Main. With the kind permission of the RePhoR joint project RePhoRM and the joint partner Infraserv Höchst, the group met in the old control room on the industrial site. Part of the day’s program included a tour of the RePhoRM pilot plant and Infraserv Höchst’s sewage sludge incineration plant.

The steering committee is used for cross-project networking between the research projects and for discussing overarching issues. Among other things, cross-cutting topics are defined on which all interested joint projects work together during the course of the funding measure, e. g. in workshops. In addition, joint activities are planned for the utilization and practical implementation of the project results and for public relations work. The steering committee is made up of the coordinators of the joint projects, the networking project and experts, e.g. from industry, associations, authorities and government departments. Representatives of the BMBF and the project sponsor also take part in the steering committee meetings, which take place up to every six months.

Statement of German Phosphorus Platform on discovered phosphate deposits in Norway

28. August 202318. September 2023

Statement of German Phosphorus Platform on discovered phosphate deposits in Norway

Various media have recently reported the discovery of huge phosphate deposits in Norway. The DPP e.V. has issued a statement on this matter.

The 2022 annual report of Norge Mining Limited announced the finding of 70 billion tons of phosphate rock.

The topic was rapidly taken up by various media, partly with the tenor that the previous import dependency of European countries, including Germany, is over. The German Phosphorus Platform (DPP) e.V. issued a statement in July, which was also taken up and discussed by the press. You can read the DPP’s statement here.

Regardless of all developments and findings still to come, the BMBF funding measure RePhoR supports the setting of the course for a sustainable recycling of existing phosphorus resources. As can be seen from the statement of DPP e.V., it is so far unclear within which period of time the occurrences could be economically degradable. Either way, however, even the reserves found are finite. Therefore, the large-scale implementation of P-recycling technologies still represents a sensible way forward.

Phosphorus recycling product struvite in a long-term test in Nettlingen near Hildesheim

8. August 202310. August 2023

Phosphorus recycling product struvite in a long-term test in Nettlingen near Hildesheim

Besichtigung des Dauerversuchs auf einem Praxisbetrieb in Nettlingen bei Hildesheim. © Elke Bloem, JKI — Tour of the permanent test on a practical farm in Nettlingen near Hildesheim. © Elke Bloem, JKI

The Julius Kühn Institute (JKI) is currently conducting field experiments with fertilisers made from the phosphorus recycling product struvite. JKI, a partner in the RePhoR collaborative project P-Net, recently invited visitors to view the permanent experiment on a practice farm in Nettlingen near Hildesheim – the magazine Beckmann Verlag GmbH & Co. KG (contractor) reported.

Overall, the long-term phosphorus (P) and magnesium fertilisation effect of struvite will be investigated over a period of nine years on the plots in Nettlingen. The aim is to enable the young plants to develop P through root activity. As the soil is already well supplied with P, only maintenance fertilisation will be applied. However, initial results show that struvite fertilisation enables the plant to extract phosphorus from the soil just as well as a water-soluble commercial fertiliser such as the widely used DAP.

The testing of the struvite fertiliser, which will be marketed under the brand name “Crystallo”, is part of the BMBF-funded research project “Establishment of a network for resource-efficient phosphorus recycling and management in the Harz and Heath region” (P-Net). The researchers are also investigating the market opportunities for struvite fertilisers. A key factor here is the packaging of the fertiliser in standardised quality. By setting up a struvite network, P-Net aims to contribute to the establishment of further developed, optimised and promising processes and measures for struvite upgrading at other locations on the national and international market.

Agrobusiness Niederrhein e. V. presents the RePhoR projects P-Net, SATELLITE and AMPHORE

3. August 20235. September 2023

Agrobusiness Niederrhein e.V. stellt die RePhoR-Projekte P-Net, SATELLITE und AMPHORE vor

In June, Agrobusiness Niederrhein e.V. hosted an event at the Emschergenossenschaft wastewater treatment plant in Dinslaken to present different ways of recycling nutrients from wastewater and to discuss the legal framework and challenges. Among the projects presented were the RePhoR joint projects P-Net, SATELLITE and AMPHORE.

At the beginning of the event, Dr. Dennis Blöhse of Emschergenossenschaft/Lippeverband (EGLV) started with a report on the wastewater industry’s perspective on nutrient recycling. The obligation to recover phosphorus, which will apply from 2029, will also affect EGLV’s plants. For this reason, EGLV is already working intensively with other water industry associations and subsidiaries, as well as with scientific institutions, on ways to implement the legal framework.

Dr. Blöhse presented, among other things, activities already completed in the European INTERREG NWE project “Phos4You” (2016-2021) as well as current activities in the project with the acronym “AMPHORE” (2020-2025), which is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) under the funding line “Regional Phosphorus Recycling (RePhoR)”. As part of this project, a large-scale demonstration plant for phosphorus recycling will be built in Bottrop, Germany, by a newly founded company, PhosRec GmbH, and will be in operation from 2024.

SF-Soepenberg GmbH, an active project partner of P-Net and SATELLITE, has developed a proprietary process called iPhos, which extracts phosphate from water and reduces the phosphate content in the dry matter of sewage sludge to less than two percent. The first plant, which will be able to recover phosphate from the wastewater of around 5,000 inhabitants using this process, is due to go into operation this summer.

iPhos and other processes for p-recovery from wastewater produce the mineral struvite, which contains phosphorus, magnesium and nitrogen. Dr. Joachim Clemens of Soepenberg is convinced of the positive properties of struvite as a fertiliser, which is already available for agricultural use. struvite precipitates when magnesium compounds are added to wastewater. This keeps the pipes in sewage treatment plants free and at the same time produces a high-quality raw material for fertilisers.

TransPhoR contribution at the European Wastewater Management Conference in Manchester

5. July 20237. July 2023

TransPhoR contribution at the European Wastewater Management Conference in Manchester

Vortrag von Sophia Schüller (FiW e. V.) zum Thema Phosphor-Recycling im BMBF-Förderprojekt RePhoR. © FiW e. V. — Presentation by Sophia Schüller (FiW e. V.) on the topic of phosphorus recycling in the BMBF-funded project RePhoR. © FiW e. V.

Impressionen EWMC 2023 in Manchester. © FiW e. V — Impressions of EWMC 2023 in Manchester. © FiW e. V.

The European Wastewater Management Conference is an annual event for the presentation of current developments in the wastewater sector and the exchange of experts and stakeholders. This year, more than 300 participants attended the conference. Sophia Schüller from the TransPhoR project had the opportunity to present the RePhoR funding project within the “Nutrient Removal & Recovery” session and discussed with the participants the experience needed, which other European countries also need to access. Previously, Chris Thornton of the European Sustainable Phosphorus Platform (ESPP) had already given an overview of the EU’s regulatory instruments for nutrient recovery.

The conference was held in the light of the worsening climate crisis: in his key note presentation “This changes everything: the coming climate reckoning”, Professor Rupert Read urgently called on the water industry to take action. In the light of this, the following presentations once again made clear the connection between phosphorus and climate change: increasing heavy rainfall and storm events cause phosphorus to be flushed out of the soil, which on the one hand has a negative impact on the water quality of neighboring bodies of water, and on the other hand increases the need for phosphorus fertilizer. At the same time, the soil temperature increases in the long term and thus also the uptake capacity of the plants.

In view of the expert audience, the presentation focused on the organizational challenges of phosphorus recycling and the results to be expected from RePhoR, as well as the description of the accompanying and cross-project cross-cutting issues (more on the RePhoR homepage). Germany, as one of the countries in the EU that have introduced a P-recycling obligation, can also help to shape the technological paths of other EU countries through the experiences that are also generated within the RePhoR measure, if they are looking for best practice examples. The discussions that followed the presentation made it clear that there are many questions about the way forward and the urgency of the timeframe, and that the results are eagerly awaited.

RePhoR projects enter the next phase

30. June 202310. July 2023

RePhoR projects enter the next phase

The seven joint projects are now entering the practical implementation with the start of the further funding phase at the beginning of July.

More at
https://www.fona.de/de/projekte-zum-phosphorrecycling-gehen-in-naechste-phase

Phosphorus recycling in innovation management – TransPhoR contribution at the ISPIM Innovation Conference in Ljubljana

8. June 202314. June 2023

Phosphorus recycling in innovation management – TransPhoR contribution at the ISPIM Innovation Conference in Ljubljana

Impressionen ISPIM 2023 in Ljubljana. © FiW e. V. — Impressions of ISPIM 2023 in Ljubljana. © FiW e. V.

The scientific accompanying project presented the BMBF funding measure Regional Phosphorus Recycling (RePhoR) and discussed potential barriers to market entry of wastewater-derived phosphorus recyclates in the context of innovation management.

The ISPIM Innovation Conference is held annually in varying locations around the world and this year was the 34th time it was organized and held in Ljubljana, Slovenia, in collaboration with regional stakeholders. The organizer is ISPIM (International Society for Professional Innovation Management), which is concerned with the generation of innovative products, processes and services and their market entry and networks members with each other.

With this year’s focus of the event on Circular Economy, phosphorus recycling fitted right in. Therefore, in the block “EU Projects” Sophia Schüller was able to present the funding measure Regional Phosphorus Recycling (RePhoR) on June 7th and discuss challenges for market entry, e. g. legal issues. The session was moderated by Katrin Reschwamm (EUrelations AG).

The conference offered an exciting insight into innovation management and new impulses for the project, which are now being processed in the follow-up.