Phos4You - We deliver Phosphorus "made in Europe"

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Phos4You publications

Information sheets: the Phos4You project

The project Phos4You is presented in several languages in the sheets displayed hereafter:

Information sheets: Phosphorus recovered materials

Information sheets about phosphorus recovered materials are displayed hereafter. 
They highlight possible pathways to integrate phosphorus recovered materials in value chains into CE-Mark products under the EU Fertilising Products Regulation (EU) 2019/1009. This regulation, which comes into implementation in 2022, bestows End-of-Waste status and enables a product to be sold and exported freely across the European market. To obtain the CE-Mark, compliance with all relevant rules of this regulation is needed: component and product requirements, conformity assessment procedure, REACH registration (some materials), labelling requirements. Producers may also choose to valorise recovered nutrients either as “waste” or under National fertiliser legislation.

The following sheets only focus on the identification of possible routes. The portrayed materials are based on those recovered with the demonstrators operated within the Phos4You project.

Please find the information sheets in several languages below:

Information sheets: Phosphorus recovery technologies 

Information sheets about phosphorus recovery technologies are presented hereafter. They highlight processes to recover phosphorus from wastewater, sludge and sewage sludge ashes that have been tested, optimised and up scaled within the Phos4You project. The Phos4You partners designed, built and operated the demonstrators to elaborate innovative solutions for P recovery in an urban and/or rural context.

The description of phosphorus recovery technologies is not complete nor giving any priority.

Please find the information sheets in several languages below:

Phos4You Final Conference

Phosphorus recovery from wastewater: approaches developed within Phos4You

22nd - 23rd September 2021, Essen - Germany & online

After four years of cooperation, the Phos4You partnership would like to invite you to the project’s final conference.

The 2-days event will focus on four interrelated topics:

• Recovery, processing and distribution of novel phosphorus (P) products
• Technologies and processes for deploying P-recycling in urban areas
• Technologies and approaches for enabling P-recovery in remote, rural and island locations
• Quality assessment of recovered P materials and LCA-LCC of P-recovery processes:
  methods and results

The programme will include plenaries, multi-stakeholders discussions, a poster exhibition, an excursion to a Phos4You demonstrator and plenty of opportunities to enjoy, exchange and network.

Speakers will be Phos4You actors in the fields of wastewater treatment and sewage sludge incineration, recovery processes and research. Stakeholders in the agri-food value chain as well as policymakers from EU and national organisations will share their knowledge and engage in discussion.

Please find the conference programme below.

Registration is now open until 31st July 2021.

Phos4You at the ECSM’2019 in Liège, Belgium

From Sunday 6^th to Thursday 10^th October 2019 an intense “phosphorus week” took place at the University of Liège, Belgium.

The 3rd Phos4You dissemination event took place during the European Conference on Sludge Management. This expert conference is organised every 2 years in changing places by the University of Liège, partner in Phos4You. More than 100 people joined the ECSM`2019: 106 participants, of which 38 % female, 40 from industry, 40 from research institutes, and 26 from public institutions, associations or water agencies.

In 4 plenary lectures and 7 sessions about 27 oral presentations were given and 15 posters displayed. A best poster award was given to 2 Phos4You contributions:

• Optimization of p recovery from sewage sludge by bio-acidification by Younes Bareha
• Pulse process: recovery of phosphorus from sludge and its product quality assessment, by Zaheer Ahmed Shariff and Aleksandra Bogdan

Session 6 and 7 were dedicated to the Phos4You partners to share their interim results:

Session 6: Phosphorus recovery – lab scale; chaired by CIT WSSIC, Cork IE

• Potential for increasing phosphorus recovery from sewage sludge by Bio-Acidification, M-L. Daumer, Y. Bareha, M. Saoudi
• Understanding Phosphorus dissolution in sewage sludge by Bioacidification, M.A. Saoudi, K. As, M-L. Daumer
• Phosphorus recovery from dried sludge with reactive extraction to remove impurities, Z. A. Shariff, L. Fraikin, A. Léonard, A. Pfennig

Session 7: Phosphorus recovery – pilot scale; chaired by Uni Liège, Liège, BE

• First results of the EUPHORE pilot plant, D. Klein, K.-G. Schmelz, L. Pamuk, M.-E. Ploteau, F. Zepke, S. Klose
• Results of Pilot Scale Tests for P-Recovery from Emschergenossenschaft Lippeverband Sewage Sludge Ashes with REMONDIS TetraPhos^® Process, D. Blöhse, P. Herr
• P-recovery as struvite from digested sludge – experience from the full scale, B. Saerens, S. Geerts, M. Weemaes
• Recovered Phosphorous fertiliser and effects on residual soil P indices in relation to commercial P fertiliser, C. O’Donnell, N. Power, D. Barnett, J. Harrington

A parallel poster session showed also a poster from Phos4You:

• Strategy and concept-approach for the recovery of phosphorus in one of the largest sewage sludge producers of Germany, D. Blöhse, D. Bogaczyk

On Wednesday 9^th October 2019 the European Sustainable Phosphorus Platform ESPP held a European workshop on “Waste water phosphorus removal tomorrow: ambitions and reality” back to back with the ECSM’2019. In joint coffee and lunch breaks the experts from the ESPP workshop met the ECSM’2019 participants for a fruitful exchange.

The Interreg programme secretariat JS based in Lille/FR, was able to join in the person of the Phos4You project officer, Matthew Thompson, who got a direct insight into the project’s work and actual issue concerning Phosphorus recovery and recycling.

On 9^th and 10^th also the working group meeting of the Phos4You partnership took place, gaining highest synergies with the two previous events.

The first day was focused on the transnational work on LCA/LCC and a GIS-based Decision Support Tool, as well as quality assessment activities concerning the phosphate products and materials created with the Pbos4You technologies. The day ended with a highlight: visiting the Prayon S.A. manufacturing plant of phosphoric acid.

The second day was dedicated to give the Belgium picture: The strategies for P-recycling from waste water in Wallonie and Flanders were presented by Jean Pierre Silan, AquaWal (Wallonie) and Sam Geerts, Aquafin (Flanders).

Finally, three Phos4You demonstrators to recover P from sewage sludge were presented and discussed:

Presentation of the potential of the EuPhoRe technology based on experiences with I1-demonstrator in Dinslaken/DE - Daniel Klein, Emschergenossenschaft

Presentation of the potential of the PULSe technology based on experiences with I3-demonstrator in Liège/BE - Zaheer Shariff, UniLiège

Presentation of the potential of the STRUVIA technology optimized with bio-acidification based on experiences with I6-demonstrator in Tergnier/FR – Younes Bareha, IRSTEA

The Phos4You partnership looks forward to go on with the transnational work - see you next January in Essen, Germany!

Phos4You at the ENVIRON2018 in Cork, Ireland

The know-how exchange between Irish experts and Phos4You partnership created an exciting week before Easter:

From Monday, the 26th March 2018 on, the Irish Environmental Researchers Colloquium - in short Environ 2018 - took place in Cork, Ireland. This year’s colloquium was organised in a joint partnership between the Environmental Sciences Association of Ireland (ESAI) and Cork Institute of Technology (CIT), partner in Phos4You.

The Phos4You partners could present their topics of current research within the project, in order to disseminate project’s results and share with the conference’s participants:

Key note:

• “Dutch experience of waste water sludge incineration and phosphates recycling pathway ” , Josien Ruijter, HVC, the Netherlands

Session about Waste management

• “Waterboards on the way to recycle phosphorus”, Marie-Edith Ploteau, Emschergenossenschaft and Lippeverband, Germany
• “Biosorbents produced from waste crab carapace, oyster and mussel shell: Potential for phosphate removal and recovery from wastewater”, Szabolcs Papp, Environmental Research Institute, North Highland College, University of the Highlands and Islands, Scotland
• “Phos4You - Chlamydomonas acidophila as an alternative for Phosphorous recovery from wastewater”, Lena-Dorothea Reichelt, Glasgow Caledonian University
• “Valorisation strategies for wastewater treatment sludge”, Laurent Fraikin, University of Liège, Belgium
• “A promising process to increase P recovery as mineral fertilizer from sewage sludge by bio-acidification”, Mohamed Amine Saoudi, IRSTEA, France

Session “Waste management 2”

• “Cost assessment of different routes for phosphorus recovery from wastewater using data from pilot and production plants”, Anders Nättorp, School of Life Sciences FNHW, Switzerland

Poster presentation:

• “Phos4You: Quality assessment of phosphorus fertilizers recycled from municipal wastewater” Aleksandra Bogdan, Ghent University, Belgium

All abstracts have been published in the conference proceedings of the Environ 2018: “Environ 2018, Arriving at a Sustainable Future”, Cork Institute of Technology and Environmental Sciences Association of Ireland, Cork, March 2018

The printed version can be requested from the Environ 2018 organising committee; please contact Dr Joe Harrington: joe.harrington (at) cit.ie

Following the Environ 2018, the 3^rd working group meeting of the Phos4You partnership took place, starting on Wednesday afternoon, March 28^th.

In the session “Status of construction and operation of the demonstrators”, the pilot plants were presented by the responsible partner. Schedule, location and products of the demonstrators were discussed in order to plan the next joint activities.

The next session was dedicated to the quality assessment activities. The University of Ghent presented first tests with commercially available products, selected methods at partners´ labs, as well as literature review on assessment methods. Next steps were discussed and planned jointly by all partners.

In the later afternoon parallel sessions took place: One - led by the University of Liège - highlighted the set-up of the process to carry out the LCA&LCC analysis .The other - moderated by the Glasgow Caledonian University - was about stakeholder engagement plans for Scotland/Ireland, which was the follow-up of the February meeting that took place also in Cork, Ireland.

Thursday, March 29^th, was starting with the session about the Decision-Support-Tool to help operators of waste water treatment plants to select a suitable P-recovery technology. IRSTEA, France, presented linkages with a Decision-Support-Tool in the H2020-DECISIVE project, first data collection, parameters of recovery systems. The next steps and work flow with LCA activities were discussed with all involved partners.

Surely a highlight of the day was the “Irish session”: To understand the specific Irish context, representatives from CIT, Irish Water, Cork County Council, Devenish Nutrition and Ostara were present. Topics were the “Irish National Wastewater Sludge Management Plan”, “Sludge Production and Recovery in County Cork”, “Agronomic Factors Affecting Phosphorus and the Importance of Phosphorus in the Irish Agricultural Sector” as well as “Crystal Green, Field Trials and End of Waste Criteria in an Irish Context”.

A site visit to the CIT facilities to carry out field trials within Phos4You was consequently the adequate wrap-up of this session.

The final Working Groups were organized in parallel sessions, each focusing on one specific product from the demonstrators. Key question was to jointly plan “How will recycling pathways of the products coming out of the Phos4You demonstrators be showcased.” The discussion included involved users, logistical aspects, conditioning, schedule and next steps.

European Nutrient Event was held succesfully:

The European Sustainable Phosphorus Platform ESPP organized jointly with the Phos4You project, the Swiss partner School of Life Science FHNW, the German Phosphorus Platform DPP and BaselArea.swiss the European Nutrient event from 18^th – 20^th October 2017 in Basel, Switzerland. With that the official launch of the Phos4You project took place.

The three day event included the

• Knowledge exchange on Phosphorus recycling legislation and implementation in Switzerland and Germany, a
• Networking event of leading nutrient Recycling R&D projects across Europe including a fair for Phosphorus recovery technology suppliers, and a
• Phos4You Project Meeting for project and associated partners.

Switzerland was the first country in the world to make Phosphorus recycling obligatory from Phosphorous-rich waste such as sewage sludge and animal and bone meal. Germany and Austria are also preparing appropriate legislation. Innovative new methods have made it possible to recover a large proportion of the phosphorus contained in sewage sludge and sewage sludge ash.

The European Nutrient Event therefore dealt with the topic of Phosphorus recovery and recycling. On day one, the Swiss Phosphorus Network along with stakeholders from the German-speaking countries discussed the changes taking place in sewage sludge recycling, with particular focus on the recycling of Phosphorus. The German Phosphorus Platform DPP supported the event intensely. They provided an overview of developments, discoveries, challenges and new opportunities.

On day two, the European Sustainable Phosphorus Platform jointly with the Phos4You Project invited representatives from a large number of current European R&D projects to discuss common implementation issues. Speakers from EU and even beyond gave their presentations on latest findings. Technology providers showcased their processes in the adjacent Exhibition.

Find here a summary of the event's results:

English Version

German Version

Please find the event's programme here:

English Version

Impressions of the Event:

Stefania Rocca from EASME EU COM presents EU R&D activities on nutrient recycling; further on stage (LTR): Christopher Thornton, ESPP, Burkhard Teichgräber, Lippeverband and Phos4You Lead Partner, Gaëtan Dubois, DG AGRI EU COM, and Erik Meers, University of Gent

Marie-Edith Ploteau, Lippeverband presents the Phos4You partnership

Stephen Rowe, CEO Newtrient USA, presents the Newtrient process and suppliers catalogue via Skype

Find presentations held as download here:

18. October 2017 (presentations held in German)

Kaarina Schenk, BAFU: Phosphorus recycling in Switzerland: How to go on?

Christian Kabbe, KWB / Hans-Walter Schneichel, MUEEF: Regulatory requirements for Phosphorus recovery in Germany – consequences

Anders Nättorp, FHNW: Sewage sludge disposal and Phosphorus recovery, Options in Switzerland and Europe

Alain Zaessinger, ProRheno: Concept for sewage sludge disposal in Northwestern Switzerland

Christoph Egli, AVA Altenrhein: Sewage sludge drying as starting Point for disposal and recovery, results from alcaline pyrolysis

Christoph Egli, VSA: Phosphorus recovery from waste water

Claudio Bianculli, ZAB: Mono-incineration plants – a starting point for Phosphorus recovery

Stefan Schlumberger, ZAR: Phosphorus mining from sewage sludge – the Phos4life process as option for the Swiss Phosphorus strategy

Otto Schwarzmann, SUN Nürnberg: Mephrec: sewage sludge disposal and Phosphorus recovery in one, results from pilot Trials

Matthias Mann, Küttner GmbH & Co KG: The Kubota furnace and its potential for Phosphorus recovery

Marie-Edith Ploteau, Lippeverband: Technology demonstrations in Phos4You – options for Switzerland?

Else Bünemann-König, FiBL: Plant availability of Phosorus in recycling fertilizer

Maurice Jutz, FHNW: Phosphorus Network Switzerland – Information across sectors and networking for implementation

Sébastien Meunier, BaselArea.swiss: Summary and perspective

19. October 2017 (presentations held in English)

Burkhard Teichgräber, Lippeverband: Welcome and keynote: Reasons to engage in nutrient recovery for a public water board

Eric Jakob, Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs: Environmental challenges as drivers for innovation and prosperity

Christopher Thornton, ESPP: EU policies and challenges and this event’s objectives and programme

Stefania Rocca, EASME, EU COM: EU Research and Development activities: HORIZON2020, LIFE, SME instrument

Gaëtan Dubois, DG AGRI, EU COM: Nutrients Recycling under the EIP AGRI and Horizon2020

Steven Rowe, Newtrient USA: Industry operational assessment of manure processing and nutrient Recycling technologies – widening the Newtrient process and suppliers catalogue to Europe?

Leading nutrient Recycling R&D Projects - Project pitch

Workshop on common challenges - results