Inauguration of the demonstration plant of the RePhoR joint project AMPHORE in Bot-trop and release of the AMPHORE short film
The first RePhoR plant was officially inaugurated in Bottrop on May 2nd, with high-ranking visitors including BMBF State Secretary Judith Pirscher. In the meantime, the short film of the joint project has been completed and released.
BMBF State Secretary Judith Pirscher emphasised the importance of the project on the way to sustainable resource use. Among those present were Oliver Krischer, Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Transport of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia; Bernd Tischler, Mayor of the City of Bottrop; Thomas Kufen, Chairman of the Association Council of the Ruhrverband; Dr Frank Dudda, Chairman of the Association Council of the Emschergenossenschaft; Bodo Klimpel, Chairman of the Association Council of the Lippeverband; Prof. Dr Uli Paetzel, Chairman of the Association Council of the Emschergenossenschaft and the Lippeverband; Dr Frank Obenaus, Technical Director of the Emschergenossenschaft and the Lippeverband. Dr Uli Paetzel, Chairman of the Management Board of Emschergenossenschaft and Lippeverband; Dr Frank Obenaus, Technical Director of Emschergenossenschaft and Lippeverband; Prof. Dr Norbert Jardin, Chairman of the Management Board of Emschergenossenschaft and Lippeverband. Frank Obenaus, Technical Director of Emschergenossenschaft and Lippeverband; Prof. Dr Norbert Jardin, Chairman of the Board of Management of Ruhrverband; Ingo Noppen, Director of Wupperverband; Volker Kraska, Director of Linksniederrheinische Entwässerungsgenossenschaft; Dr Yvonne Schneider, Managing Director of PhosRec Phosphor-Recycling GmbH and Prof. Dr Torsten Frehmann, Managing Director of PhosRec Phosphor-Recycling GmbH. The press release of the Emschergenossenschaft Lippeverband can be found under the following link: https://www.eglv.de/medien/phosphor-recycling-aus-abwasser/
Just in time for the inauguration of the demonstration plant, the short film on the AMPHORE joint project, which was shot in March, was also completed and released. It now provides an insight into the project content at the following link:
The €6.7 million plant is part of the AMPHORE research project. It demonstrates the recycling of phosphorus from sewage sludge ash, an important step towards overcoming the limited availability of this raw material. The demonstration plant, built by PhosRec GmbH, has a capacity of 1,000 tonnes of ash per year and will be in operation for the next two years to test various operating conditions. This is the first time the PARFORCE® technology has been used on an industrial scale. As well as meeting legal requirements, the plant will help to close the nutrient cycle in the EU.
In the AMPHORE joint project, five water boards in North Rhine-Westphalia cooperate with the support of research partners, engineering offices and commercial enterprises. The size of the association with 139 sewage treatment plants and approx. 9% of the German sewage sludge production enables an innovative, region-wide management approach for sewage sludge as well as a targeted production and further treatment of ashes of different qualities. The part of the ashes that is more heavily contaminated with heavy metals is processed in a complex, wet-chemical recovery process with the aim of achieving extensive separation of pollutants and valuable substances by generating precisely fitting phosphoric acid qualities (purity, concentration) for regional customers. It is being examined whether ashes produced in a targeted manner with particularly low pollutant contents can be used in an alternative, possibly more cost-effective phosphorus recovery process. Due to the expected synergy and scale effects, significant advantages for composite solutions can be expected. In the AMPHORE project, therefore, public-law cooperation models are being examined and the cooperation of the participating water associations in the legal form of a limited liability company is being implemented as an example.
More information can be found on the RePhoR homepage at https://www.bmbf-rephor.de/en/joint-projects/amphore/ or on the project homepage https://www.ruhrverband.de/wissen/projekt-amphore/.
