With its latest technology, ExtraPhos®, chemicals specialist Budenheim opens the door for exactly these regional resources. Based on its many years of expertise in phosphate chemistry, the company has found a way of returning the reusable material phosphorus from sewage sludge to the economic cycle.
After a construction period of one and a half years and a planning phase of three years, the ExtraPhos® pilot plant was inaugurated on Tuesday on the premises of the publicly owned sewage plant Mainz-Mombach by Minister for the Environment in Rhineland-Palatinate Ulrike Höfken and Secretary General of the German Federal Environment Foundation (Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt, DBU), Dr Heinrich Bottermann.
“The funding and thus endorsement of our innovation project by the state of Rhineland-Palatinate and the DBU encouraged us to carry on even in some critical phases of the project”, says Dr Rainer Schnee, head of the Phosphorus Recovery innovations platform at Budenheim. “Our company’s proximity to the sewage plant in Mainz-Mombach gave impetus to the fast project implementation.”
In the ExtraPhos® process, the phosphorus is extracted from the sewage sludge particles as phosphate ions using carbon dioxide addition, leading to a drop in pH value in the sludge. “The exciting thing about the novel procedure is the low use of additives. ExtraPhos® works without additional chemicals or the use of thermal energy. The carbon dioxide is recovered and is reused in the process cycle”, Eva Opitz, Project Manager at Budenheim, explains.
The mobilized phosphorus is precipitated with lime (calcium hydroxide) to generate dicalcium phosphate (DCP), which is separated out and can be used as a fertilizer in agriculture, closing the loop for phosphorus.
“Phosphorus is irreplaceable for the food security of a growing world population. Phosphate deposits, however, are decreasing all over the world. Thus closing the cycle is urgently needed for sustainable development”, says Bottermann. “For ten years now, the DBU has been funding projects using a fully integrated approach to drive environmentally friendly technological developments and procedures to close the cycle of phosphorus. This includes recovering phosphorus from sewage sludge and making it available for re-use. I am confident that part of the solution to close the phosphorus cycle will be provided by the ExtraPhos® process.”
With imports to Germany amounting to about 124,000 tonnes of phosphorus (tP), some 60,000 tonnes of it can be recycled due to the recovery potentials, Höfken says. “This makes the process not only environmentally friendly but also resource-saving”, Höfken adds.
“New technologies like ExtraPhos® not only revolutionize today’s raw materials markets but are also signposts towards a sustainably managed world and a foundation for the future”, Bottermann concludes.
Background:
Because it is an essential component of all living animals and plants, phosphorus cannot be substituted by any other substance. In fertilizers, phosphorus is one of the limiting factors determining plant growth. Globally, over 80 % of all mined phosphates end up in fertilizers.
However, phosphate rock raw material stocks are diminishing in deposits worldwide. At the same time, more than 7.3 billion people and rising need to be fed. As resources become scarcer and susceptible to price uncertainties, it is imperative to develop the Circular Economy to reduce dependency on natural resources. Densely populated regions and cities represent tomorrow’s “raw material resources”.
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> Download photo 1: Kilian Schwarz, Budenheim
"Project Manager, Eva Opitz, explains the ExtraPhos®-Technology"
> Download photo 2: Kilian Schwarz, Budenheim
"Minister for the Environment in Rhineland-Palatinate Höfken hands over the remaining amount of the subsidy"
> Download photo 3: Kilian Schwarz, Budenheim
"UMinister for the Environment in Rhineland-Palatinate Höfken and Secretary General of the German Federal Environment Foundation (Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt, DBU), Dr Heinrich Bottermann, start the pilot plant"
> Download photo 4: Kilian Schwarz, Budenheim
"In front of the ExtraPhos®-pilot plant"
> Download photo 5: Kilian Schwarz, Budenheim
"In front of the ExtraPhos®-pilot plant"
> Download photo 6: Kilian Schwarz, Budenheim
"Welcome by Dr. Rainer Schnee, Head of the Innovation Platform Phosphorus Recovery at Budenheim"
