• Climate, Environment & Health

CONSTRUCTION OF A PILOT PLANT FOR PHOSPHORUS RECOVERY

The Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research - Atmospheric Aerosol Research (IMK-AAF) is cooperating with the Competence Center for Material Moisture (CMM), which is located at the Institute of Concrete and Masonry Structures (IMB), the company Geltz Umwelttechnologie mbH and ISU mbH in the field of phosphorus recovery. Years of research are now to be transferred to a pilot plant based on the "Phosphorus Recovery by Crystallization" (P-RoC) process patented by KIT.



In order to meet the goals of sustainable environmental and resource protection more effectively than before, cities and municipalities will have to recover the vital raw material phosphorus from sewage sludge in the future. With this obligation introduced by the German government, sewage treatment plant operators are under pressure to submit a phosphorus recovery concept by 2023 and implement it by 2029. In addition to phosphorus recovery from wastewater treatment plants, nutrient removal from agricultural wastewater streams in connection with soil and groundwater protection is another important task in sustainable environmental and resource protection. Farm fertilizers in particular, such as liquid manure, slurry, dung, bark mulch and fermentation residues, have high nutrient contents, which have led to restrictions on their application in recent years. Nutrient removal from farm manure enables greater application of the available farm manure and also produces a storable fertilizer product.

The German government's ordinance does not describe a mandatory procedure for phosphorus recovery and therefore leaves room for the use of innovative technologies. One possibility is the P-Roc process developed and patented at KIT, with which the Competence Center for Material Moisture at KIT has been active in research and application since 2006 and has gained extensive experience in dealing with various types of wastewater, for example from the food industry, sewage treatment plants and agriculture.

Two gray containers standing in a parking lot: the pilot plant.
The company Geltz Umwelttechnologie GmbH is involved in the project with the construction of the pilot plant. (Image: Geltz Umwelttechnologie GmbH)

In order to support wastewater treatment plant operators in implementing the legislative obligation, the cooperation partners in the project will jointly commission a pilot plant. In addition to reliable upscaling for continuous operation, the mobile pilot plant also offers the opportunity to serve as a demonstration plant for interested wastewater treatment plant and biogas plant operators. In the project, the competence center is responsible for monitoring the construction, the preliminary tests on a laboratory scale to determine the necessary operating resources and the operation of the pilot plant. Geltz is supplying the pilot plant, instructing the staff at KIT and providing support for conversions and retrofits. ISU mbH is responsible for project management and reporting and is involved in discussions on achieving the benchmarks and necessary process engineering modifications. The IMK-AAF provides administrative support for the project.

In spring 2024, the dimensions of the pilot plant will be determined and construction will begin. The pilot plant will then be used at a bio-digestion plant in Hesse to remove nutrients from the fermentation residue liquid produced during the dewatering of the fermentation residue so that more fermentation residue liquid can be spread and a storable mineral fertilizer can be produced at the same time. The production of a mineral fertilizer in granulate form saves storage capacity at the plant, as less fermentation residue liquid has to be stored. An application in the municipal wastewater sector, in which a municipality in the district of Aschaffenburg has expressed interest, is planned for fall 2024 in order to treat the sludge water from the dewatering of the digested sludge there. With upstream sewage sludge disintegration, the nutrients can be converted into a soluble form and thus be available for subsequent recovery using the P-RoC process.

For KIT and its cooperation partners, the construction of the pilot plant is an example of the successful transfer from research to application.

 

Image: Geltz Umwelttechnologie GmbH

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Topics
  • Phosphorus Recovery
  • water treatment
  • Sewage Plant
  • Technology Transfer
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