The Styria, Austria-based plant engineering company BDI-BioEnergy International GmbH—famous for its biodiesel technologies that create value from waste—has been contracted for a scale-up project funded by the German environmental ministry to recover phosphorus from sewage sludge with Remondis and Hamburg Wasser.

“After a two-year pilot phase, the Hamburg Phosphorrecyclinggesellschaft mbh was founded,” stated Remondis. “It had already been initiated by Hamburg Wasser and Remondis in 2015. The test run has proven the technical feasibility and profitability of this procedure. The Remondis TetraPhos procedure is the only known procedure on the market that can recover phosphorus in a profitable way.”

BDI will be responsible for scale-up, preparing documents for the engineering authorities and detailed engineering. The plant is expected to be operational by 2020, recovering 6,500 tons of pure phosphorous acid from 20,000 tons of sludge per year.

“We can contribute considerably to this project with our expertise in building plants that produce value from waste,” said engineer Markus Dielacher, managing director at BDI. “Working together with Remondis and Hamburg Wasser poses a new challenge for us. We can contribute with our know-how and technological skills to this new and very important field for the future.”

According to BDI, Germany has to import phosphorus—an important but scarce raw material. The new project supports the policies that this raw material has to be recycled from sewage water by 2029.

Other BDI projects launched in just the past few months include building an algae production facility in Styria, and adding 12 MMgy of production capacity at Crimson Renewable Energy’s 24 MMgy biodiesel plant in Bakersfield, California. The additional 12 MMgy of biodiesel processing will feature BDI’s RepCat technology, a patented biodiesel production system for low-quality feedstock with high free fatty acids that employs a recyclable catalyst.