Phosphorus Recovery – Experiences from European Countries

The interest in recovery and reuse by sludge fractionation has increased in recent years, largely due to environmental and political considerations. This article is a survey of the status concerning phosphorus recovery, looking into national policies and experiences in different European countries to find different factors influencing the development of phosphorus recovery. The ambivalence of sewage sludge as carrier of both nutrients and pollutants makes the direct use of biosolids is discussed controversially in many Europeans countries. Increasing restrictions of sludge utilization in agriculture or landfill promote new alternatives for sludge disposal. The optimized sludge disposal option needs to fulfill to be the most environmental option, include social acceptance, be economical and have a feasible technical solution. At present there is no such technology fulfilling all this requirements. The driving force parameters for phosphorus recovery vary in the national context, in early stage there seems to be driven by legislation and technical feasibility (some cases also economic feasibility), while for next stage, full-scale implementation the most important factors seems to that economic feasibility, the environmental sustainability, and the social acceptance. The rate of development is also depending on these factors, especially legislation. Several pilot plant studies and lab-scale experiments are performed around Europe. The last two years many research teams have continued or started their investigating on the issue and some are discussed in this paper.