Recovery

Australian research conducted by Dana Cordell shows that approximately 14.9 million tons of phosphate ore is mined  worldwide. Of this, 3.5 million tons of phosphate finds its way into our food. Eventually, three million tons of phosphates are released through human waste. If we recover this 3 million tons of phosphate we will have covered 20% of our worldwide phosphate requirement. The Netherlands uses relatively little artificial fertiliser because we produce a relatively large quantity of animal manure. This means that the percentage in the Netherlands is even 50%.

Approximately 11.4 million tons is lost worldwide. This is due to over-fertilisation. If too much phosphate is released onto the soil a large amount is lost due to erosion and precipitation. It is also essential that a solution is also developed for this. However, in this web site we concentrate on the recovery of phosphate from waste water. Phosphates can be recovered at several points in the waste chain:

• At toilets through decentralised sanitation  (the separate collection of urine).
• At the sewage treatment plants, by allowing the phosphate to settle as struvite .
• At the incineration facilities for sludge, through recovery of phosphate from sludge ash.