Technology invented in Denmark that enables wastewater treatment plants to exploit fertiliser by accumulating ammonium has received EU funding to the tune of €1 million.
Called NUTREC, the system has been patented and a pilot system is in use at the Mariagerfjord Vand wastewater treatment plant in Hobro, Denmark.
The €1 million grant from the EU will be used to ”fine-tune” the plant in order to optimise reliability and efficiency.
The process works whereby magnesium phosphate is added to form magnesium ammonium phosphate. This is then heated up, and the vapour is collected. Next vapour and nitrogen are blown into a water tank, in which nitrogen is collected that can be used as a fertiliser.
Expected to be marketed as soon as 2014 under the name GAAR 15 from GreenAqua Solutions. The project’s other seven partners include: OHT Group ApS, Bioazul, Simbiente, Geltz Umwelt-Technologie, The Danish Knowledge Centre for Agriculture, Fraunhofer and Mariagerfjord Vand a|s.
This month, a team of scientists from German research institute Fraunhofer and The Danish Knowledge Centre for Agriculture as well as partners from Germany, Portugal and Spain are gathered in the town of Hobro in Denmark where future research and development of the project is discussed. The visit also included a demonstration of a full scale pilot system.
Inventor Karsten Poulsen (pictured above) patented his method for biologically separating ammonium from wastewater 15 years ago. Recently he developed a method whereby the ammonium can be collected instead of released as nitrogen.
Poulsen said: “Approx 8 kWh of electricity is used per kg of separated ammonium in a traditional wastewater treatment system with a biogas plant for cleaning the wastewater. With our system, 0.7 kWh per kg separated ammonium is used which means that we can save more than 7 kWh per kg ammonium. 1 kg of nitrogen collected from the air uses approx 10 kWh. 1 kg of nitrogen collected by using our system costs 0.7 kWh which means that the system is approx 25 times more cost effective.”
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