{"id":175750,"date":"2026-04-15T07:37:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T05:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=175750"},"modified":"2026-04-10T16:54:22","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T14:54:22","slug":"sustainable-raw-material-supply","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/sustainable-raw-material-supply\/","title":{"rendered":"Sustainable raw material supply"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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Disposing of wastewater treatment plant waste while simultaneously recovering white phosphorus: The new thermochemical FlashPhos process demonstrates how this works. It is currently the only technology in Europe capable of producing this essential raw material for industrial use in an environmentally friendly, efficient, and cost-effective way. A Europe-wide consortium, coordinated by the University of Stuttgart, has developed and studied the technology.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

An essential raw material<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

White phosphorus (P\u2084) is an indispensable raw material for the chemical, pharmaceutical, food, and electronics industries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cOur goal is to secure a sustainable supply of economically important raw materials that are difficult to access and increasingly scarce,\u201d says Prof. Markus Reinm\u00f6ller, Director of the\u00a0Institute for Energy Process Engineering and Dynamics in Energy Systems (IED)<\/a>\u00a0at the University of Stuttgart<\/strong>. \u201cThis can only be achieved if we produce these critical raw materials within a circular economy, as demonstrated by the FlashPhos process.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

While conventional methods recover phosphorus from sewage sludge for use in fertilizers, FlashPhos produces P\u2084 as a starting material for a wide range of industrial applications, including car batteries, flame retardants, catalysts, and chip manufacturing. Currently, only four countries produce white phosphorus, making Europe heavily dependent on imports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Closing resource loops through sewage sludge treatment<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Economically viable phosphate deposits are unevenly distributed around the world. Apart from a few small deposits in Finland, there are currently no exploitable deposits in Europe, and even well-known deposits in Norway are difficult to exploit. Since the last P4<\/sub>-producing furnace was shut down in 2012, the European Union (EU) has relied entirely on imports. Given its economic importance, import dependence, and limited availability, the EU classifies white phosphorus as a critical raw material. At the same time, phosphorus-rich sewage sludge from wastewater treatment poses increasing environmental and disposal challenges. Therefore, phosphorus recovery from sewage sludge will become mandatory in Germany from 2029 onwards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the future, FlashPhos plants are expected to enable environmentally friendly sewage sludge disposal while recovering valuable materials. In addition to white phosphorus, the process yields other useful products that can replace CO\u2082-intensive raw materials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cThis reduces import dependance and strengthens the circular economy,\u201d explains Christian Schmidberger<\/strong>, researcher at IED and FlashPhos coordinator.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

An innovative three-stage process<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The FlashPhos process involves three stages designed to separate and recover phosphorus from sewage sludge. First, wet sewage sludge is processed in a newly developed \u201cdryer grinder\u201d producing a fine, nearly water-free powder. In the second stage, this powder is converted within milliseconds in the \u201cflash reactor\u201d into a combustible gas and phosphate-containing slag. This process takes place at temperatures of 1,600\u00b0C. The required process energy comes from the organic (carbon-containing) components of the sewage sludge itself. In the final stage of the process the phosphate-containing slag is treated at high temperatures in a so-called \u201crefiner\u201d. This step produces elemental white phosphorus as the main product. Additional outputs include a climate-friendly cement substitute, an iron alloy and a heavy metal concentrate suitable for further processing in the metals industry. The gases and waste heat produced during these steps can be reused in other industrial processes, reducing the need for fossil fuels.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"The
The \u201cDryer-Grinder\u201d: The newly developed Dryer-Grinder turns wet sewage sludge into a fine, nearly water-free powder. \u00a9 University of Stuttgart \/ Ayumi Schober<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

<\/a>Scaling up for industrial production<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The \u201cdryer grinder,\u201d developed by project partner Buss-SMS-Canzler GmbH (SMS), was tested and optimized at the Institute for Sanitary Engineering, Water Quality, and Solid Waste Management (ISWA) <\/a>at the University of Stuttgart. The flash reactor and refiner demonstrators were jointly developed by multiple project partners and assembled at the facilities of Aufbereitung, Recycling und Pr\u00fcftechnik GmbH (ARP) in Leoben, Austria. The pilot plant processes up to 250 kilograms of sewage sludge powder per hour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next step is to build the first full-scale production facility. The industry partners involved in FlashPhos aim to start industrial production of white phosphorus by 2028. One remaining challenge is the availability of sewage sludge. Only a few densely populated regions have sufficient quantities of sewage sludge. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cMetropolitan areas such as the Ruhr region, Barcelona, Madrid, or Milano would be particularly suitable,\u201d says Schmidberger.<\/strong> <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

By 2050, FlashPhos plants could cover up to half of Europe\u2019s P\u2084 demand. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Looking ahead, the research team<\/strong> is already exploring further applications: \u201cOur long-term vision at IED is to recover additional critical raw materials from waste streams.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n

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\"Measurements
Measurements at the flash reactor: It converts the pulverized sewage sludge into a combustible gas and phosphate-containing sewage sludge slag. \u00a9 University of Stuttgart \/ Christian Schmidberger<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

<\/a>About the FlashPhos collaborative project<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The FlashPhos project (May 2021 to April 2026) is funded by the European Union with approximately \u20ac12 million under the Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, under grant agreement No 958267. Coordinated by the University of Stuttgart, the consortium brings together 17 partners from industry and academia across Austria, Germany, Belgium, Italy, and Spain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The project will conclude with a final conference on April 21, 2026, at the Communications Center Donawitz and will include a guided tour of the test facilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More information on the\u00a0project website<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Contacts<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Christian Schmidberger, University of Stuttgart
Institute for Energy Process Engineering and Dynamics in Energy Systems
Tel: +49 711 685-67762
email: christian.schmidberger@ied.uni-stuttgart.de<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prof. Markus Reinm\u00f6ller, University of Stuttgart
Institute for Energy Process Engineering and Dynamics in Energy Systems
Tel: +49 711 685-63488
email: markus.reinmoeller@ied.uni-stuttgart.de<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Disposing of wastewater treatment plant waste while simultaneously recovering white phosphorus: The new thermochemical FlashPhos process demonstrates how this works. It is currently the only technology in Europe capable of producing this essential raw material for industrial use in an environmentally friendly, efficient, and cost-effective way. A Europe-wide consortium, coordinated by the University of Stuttgart, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":175764,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","nova_meta_subtitle":"New technology FlashPhos produces phosphorus from wastewater","footnotes":""},"categories":[17143],"tags":[6843,10416,24601,5528,25974],"supplier":[27819,5585,7768,781],"class_list":["post-175750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-recycling","tag-biochemicals","tag-circulareconomy","tag-phosphorus","tag-sustainability","tag-wastewatertreatment","supplier-buss-sms-canzler-gmbh-sms","supplier-european-union","supplier-horizon-2020","supplier-universitaet-stuttgart"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175750"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175750\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":175769,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175750\/revisions\/175769"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/175764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175750"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=175750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}