RePhoRM

The RePhoRM joint project is a research and development project on the subject of “Regional Phosphorus Recycling (RePhoR)” funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) as part of the “Research for Sustainable Development (FONA3)” funding program. A technological and organizational network solution for phosphorus recycling in the Rhine-Main area is targeted. More precisely, the project further develops technologies for phosphorus recovery from sewage sludge ash and heavy metal removal, the large scale production of fertilizer granulates and concepts to close nutrient cycles in agriculture.

An ecological assessment accompanying the development will be created by the material flow management and resource management department to identify environmental hotspots of the overall process at an early stage and, if necessary, to optimize them. The process options concluded in the concept phase concerning phosphorus recovery from sewage sludge ash will be realized in the implementation phase. The evaluation is carried out with the tool life cycle assessment (LCA) based on DIN EN ISO 14040 and DIN EN ISO 14044, where the complete process chain and its life cycle are taken into account. Three key issues will be investigated: i) an investigation of the scaling effects from emerging technologies to large-scale operations ii) environmental impacts caused by the transport effort and iii) removal of heavy metals.