Objectives: (i) To ensure that knowledge developed during the project is properly captured and dissemination is effectively targeted and carried out systematically (ii) To promote a continuous knowledge exchange and transfer for project outcomes with interested stakeholders beyond the consortium (iii) To formulate fact based policy recommendations that stimulate the transition towards a circular economy (iv) To create public awareness concerning the need for a circular economy and the actions required to move towards its realisation

With the new sewage sludge ordinance from 2017, phosphorus recovery becomes obligatory for large sewage treatment plant operators. Within the last year, the interpretation of this ordinance due to the exact wording has changed. As an example, a process aiming to recover phosphorus within the sewage treatment plant from waste water or sludge before the sludge is legally understood as waste. Therefore, a benchmark of 20 g Phosphorus (P)/kg dry matter (DM) is foreseen. However, this benchmark is an obstacle to increasing energy efficiency and sludge reduction, since carbon and dry matter is transferred into biogas in anaerobic digestion. Normally, raw sludge has a phosphorus content around 20 g P/kg DM, while digested sludge has a phosphorus content of about 35 g P/kg DM. The paper shows estimations of different full-scale combinations targeting phosphorus and advanced energy recovery and the resulting phosphorus content in sewage sludge per kg DM. Furthermore, this paper discusses the legal framework regarding phosphorus recovery from ash based on the sewage sludge ordinance, the national fertilizer regulation, the European Union fertilizing product regulation and the European Union feed/fodder regulation. The author concludes, that the legal framework is not explained properly to sewage treatment plant operators, which leads to confusions. Several questionable paragraphs and their wording should be addressed in future regulation amendments. Finally, there should be a regulatory need to establish phosphorus recovery from demand side (fertilizer industry, farmers) and not only from supplier side (sewage treatment plants). Because otherwise products must be produced, whereby no actual market for these products is established.

Mit der Novellierung der Klärschlammverordnung im Jahr 2017 nahm die Suche nach praxisrelevanten Verfahren zur P-Rückgewinnung an Fahrt auf.

In the aftermath of the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Agreement (COP21) by virtually all United Nations, producing more with less is imperative. In this context, phosphorus processing, despite its high efficiency compared to other steps in the value chain, needs to be revisited by science and industry. During processing, phosphorus is lost to phosphogypsum, disposed of in stacks globally piling up to 3–4 billion tons and growing by about 200 million tons per year, or directly discharged to the sea. Eutrophication, acidification, and long-term pollution are the environmental impacts of both practices. Economic and regulatory framework conditions determine whether the industry continues wasting phosphorus, pursues efficiency improvements or stops operations altogether. While reviewing current industrial practice and potentials for increasing processing efficiency with lower impact, the article addresses potentially conflicting goals of low energy and material use as well as Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) as a tool for evaluating the relative impacts of improvement strategies. Finally, options by which corporations could pro-actively and credibly demonstrate phosphorus stewardship as well as options by which policy makers could enforce improvement without impairing business locations are discussed.

Im Rahmen der EIP Water Action Group ARREAU fand am 16. Juni 2016 auf der Kläranlage Amersfoort (NL) das Kick-off der „Struvite Recovery & Recycling Learning Alliance“ statt, welche durch das Kompetenzzentrum Wasser Berlin gGmbH initiiert und organisiert wurde. Der Ort Amersfoort wurde gezielt gewählt, da hier die weltweit erste Kombination der Verfahren WASSTRIP, LYSOTHERM und PEARL in diesem Jahr im Großmaßstab in Betrieb ging.