G R K 2 9 0 8 - W E R T S T O F F A B W A S S E R
Graduiertenkolleg WERA
Recovery of critical raw materials using the example of phosphorus
The consumption of natural resources by modern industrial societies is already leading to an alarming shortage of essential raw materials. As an important raw material in fertilizer production, phosphorus is one of the 30 critical raw materials currently listed by the EU, which have a high supply risk and are of great economic importance. Municipal wastewater and sewage sludge have a high substitution potential for geogenic phosphorus. Germany was one of the first countries to include requirements for phosphorus recovery in its legislation.
In WERA, 11 cooperative research projects on the recovery of the important raw material phosphorus (P) from wastewater are being worked on together using novel natural scientific and engineering approaches through to technical implementation. In WERA, various processes, such as the synthesis of tailor-made adsorbers and innovative separation units for phosphorus recovery will be developed, combined in process chains and validated on a wastewater recycling pilot plant. Suitable methods for process analysis and characterization will be extended and the chemical-physical relationships will be studied using molecular and thermodynamic simulations. The research findings of WERA can be transferred to many other fields of the circular economy.
