Phosphorus to be recovered from Dutch sewage fly ash by EcoPhos in Dunkirk, France
Belgian-based EcoPhos contracted the delivery of fly ash from two Dutch incinerators of sewage sludge. Ecophos will process the Dutch fly ash in its new production facility for animal feed grade Di-Calcium Phosphate (DCP) that is currently under construction in Dunkirk, France.
Half of all Dutch sludge from municipal waste water treatment plants - 1,5 million ton/year - is burned in two fluidised bed incinerators by Slibverwerking Noord-Brabant in Moerdijk and HVC Groep in Dordrecht.
The recovery of phosphorus from fly ash of two incinerator plants is expected to become operational in 2017.
left to right: Bombeeck (SNB), Takhim (EcoPhos) and Steensel (HVC).
The contract was signed on 26 February by financial manager Silvester Bombeeck of Slibverwerking Noord-Brabant (SNB), chief executive office Mohamed Takhim of EcoPhos, and director raw materials Dion van Steensel of HVC Groep.
High concentration phosphorus
Sewage water in the Netherlands contains approximately 12 million kg of phosphorus of which 85% ends up in sewage sludge.
When sewage sludge is subsequently burned in a separate mono-sludge combustor, such as at HVC and SNB, most of the phosphorus ends up in the fly ash.
Fly ash contains up to 27% phosphorus.
Wet chemical process
EcoPhos, in cooperation with SNB and HVC, developed a wet-chemical process to recover phosphorus from fly ash in the form of fertilizer.
In Dunkirk (France), EcoPhos is building a new animal feed grade DCP production plant with an annual capacity of 220 kiloton. This plant incorporates the new process to treat 50 to 60,000 tonnes fly ash.
It will be the first industrial plant in Europe processing these ashes.
Mono sludge incinerator of SNB in Moerdijk, the Netherlands.
Big step for P-recovery
Phosphorus is a finite resource. The demand for phosphorus still increases, so there is a growing urgency to recover phosphorus.
According to director Marcel Lefferts of SNB the contract is a big step for phosphorus recycling in Europe. "This collaboration in the supply chain makes it possible to recover more phosphorus than the operators of waste water treatment plants can recover by themselves at their own plants."
This news item was originally published on the websites of SNB and HVC Groep (in Dutch only).
More information
EcoPhos
Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
+32 10 477 370
www.ecophos.com
HVC Groep
Alkmaar, the Netherlands
+31 72 5411 31
www.hvcgroep.nl
Slibverwerking Noord-Brabant
Moerdijk, the Netherlands
+31 168 38 20 60
www.snb.nl