Objetivo
Municipal sewage sludge (MSS) is a carrier of nutrients but is often contaminated by hazardous organic and inorganic pollutants. Therefore, it must be disposed of or the pollutants must be removed before agricultural use to protect farmland and human health. Disposal or immobilisation results in an irreversible loss of nutrients.
The project is aimed to develop a sustainable and safe strategy for nutrient recovery from sewage sludges using thermal treatment. Mono-incineration of the sludges will completely destruct the organic pollutants in a first step. The incineration residues are ashes with a high phosphorus (P) content that still contain heavy metal compounds above the limits for agricultural use. Phosphorus in the ashes exhibits low bioavailability - a disadvantage in farming. Therefore, in a second thermochemical step heavy metals will be removed and P transferred into mineral phases available for plants. First investigations have shown that volatile heavy metal chlorides are formed by adding magnesium chloride at temperatures of 900-1000 °C and can be separated. Additionally, magnesium phosphates are built up resulting in P-bioavailability of up to 100%.
These technologies will be developed and improved with focus on large-scale application aiming at P-fertiliser products. Intense agricultural investigations will guarantee marketability of the fertiliser. Advantages and disadvantages of the proposed technology will be analysed and compared to other treatment and management options. The comparison will be based on energy, material and substance balances as well as established evaluation methods and will quantify the contribution of all options to environmental protection and resource recovery. The method is both technically and economically feasible, it will solve an environmental protection problem and utilize a potential raw material. As a result, approx. 300,000 tonnes of phosphorus can be recovered as fertiliser in Europe.
Ámbito científico
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringwaste managementwaste treatment processesrecycling
- medical and health sciencesbasic medicinepharmacology and pharmacypharmaceutical drugs
- natural scienceschemical sciencesinorganic chemistryalkali metals
- natural scienceschemical sciencesinorganic chemistrytransition metals
- natural scienceschemical sciencesinorganic chemistryalkaline earth metals
Convocatoria de propuestas
FP6-2004-GLOBAL-3
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