Austria-headed biofuels and biogas process engineering company BDI BioEnergy International GmbH has announced that it is working on a phosphorus recovery project together with Germany-headed wastewater treatment and waste management major REMONDIS and the city of Hamburg municipal water company, Hamburger WasserWerke GmbH. The project is being funded by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU).
According to BDI, the plant will recover around 6 500 tonnes of pure phosphorus acid (H3PO3) annually from 20 000 tonnes of sludge and BDI is responsible for upscaling, preparing the documents for the engineering authorities and for engineering in detail. The plant is expected to be operational by 2020. The value of the order has not been disclosed.
The project was initiated by Hamburger Wasserwerke GmbH and REMONDIS in 2015. Following a two-year pilot phase that demonstrated the technical feasibility and profitability of this recovery process developed by REMONDIS, Hamburger Phosphor-recyclinggesellschaft mbH was founded on March 26, 2018. According to REMONDIS, its TetraPhos process is the only on the market that can “recover phosphorus in a profitable way.”
Germany has to import phosphorus, which is a very important but also very scarce raw material. The project fundamentally supports the policies that this raw material has to be recycled from sewage water by 2029 at the latest.
We can contribute considerably to this project with our expertise in building plants that produce value from waste. Working together with REMONDIS and HAMBURG WASSER poses a new challenge for us. We can contribute with our know-how and technological skills to this new and very important field for the future, said Markus Dielacher Managing Director at BDI.
