The stricter limit values for heavy metals and the intention of the Federal Government to abandon the use of agricultural sewage sludge in the long term have considerable effects on municipal water management. Particularly in rural areas that have benefited from soil-bound sewage sludge recycling, the recycling of sewage sludge is becoming increasingly difficult or will no longer be permitted in the future [Tränckner, 2018][DWA, 2015],[VKU, 2015]. For this reason, further scenarios must be created for sustainable and reliable sewage sludge recycling in the future.
The entire sewage sludge recycling industry is undergoing change. The disposal costs for sewage sludge are increasingly oriented towards mono-combustion costs. The disposal costs for the ton dewatered sewage sludge vary depending upon region between 98 and 208 euro. The costs for the legally prescribed phosphorus recycling are not even integrated. HTCycle has invested a lot of time in a clear presentation and processing of the legal and political situation. HTCycle sees itself as the future alternative to sewage sludge incineration and presents its results confidently. In this situation our company HTCycle wants to demonstrate and market our own technology for hydrothermal carbonisation (HTC) of sewage sludge and shows clear technical, economic and economic advantages compared to the current sludge incineration method. We want to increase the amount of sludge converted into high quality products such as activated carbon for water treatment, recycled phosphorus and ammonia as fertilizer. HTCycle protects the conservation of finite resources such as phosphorus and relieves the environment. The HTCycle process reverses the previous practice of sewage sludge disposal from (mono-)incineration as an expensive disposal process to an economically and ecologically sensible business model.
