Pontes Pabuli - The Nutrient Bridge
Pontes pabuli offers sustainable solutions that bridge the gap between the nutrients lost in organic waste and the specific nutrient requirements of agriculture.
Our processes enable us to develop sustainable and locally sourced raw materials, thereby recycling mostly unexploited nutrients from organic wastes. Protecting natural resources is our commitment to our children.
We develop process solutions that enable valuable nutrients to be extracted from waste materials, reducing pollutants and generating fertilisers.
The exploitation of and competition for natural resources and scarce raw materials is on the rise globally. This is connected with a rise in worldwide environmental problems such as climate change, soil degradation and the loss of biodiversity.
At the same time there is a massive amount of potentially recyclable material in waste that remains unused. This is also true in the case of organic residues such as sewage sludge, liquid manure or fermentation residues, which contain many nutrients and in principle represent a cost-effective and sustainable alternative to mineral fertilisers. However, direct use in agriculture is increasingly limited due to pollution and the smell. Another reason is that optimum fertilisation is virtually impossible and therefore often results in overfertilisation, with the well-known associated environmental consequences. As such, thermal recycling of such waste is gaining in importance. The result is an ash containing both valuable nutrients and harmful substances such as heavy metals.
Our process solutions allow us to utilise previously lost nutrients, reduce the amount of pollutants and return them to the nutrient cycle. This conserves our natural resources, reduces environmental damage through the extraction of natural raw materials and creates a local recycling chain without the need for long transport routes.
We recover phosphate from combustion residues like sewage sludge ash and use it for the production of high-quality fertilisers. Cost-effective and low in pollutants.
Life without phosphorus would be unthinkable: without it, no plants could grow and no humans could live. Plants, animals and humans need it as much as they need sunlight and air to breathe. Modern agriculture and industry would be inconceivable without phosphorus. Yet here in Europe we are almost 100% dependent on imports of this fundamental building block of life, while the raw material is increasingly polluted.
Phosphorus is typically obtained from mineral rocks, though how long these reserves will last is highly debatable. One thing is certain however: at some point we're going to run out of phosphorus. This would present an existential problem, since phosphorus does not regenerate like other resources such as oil, and would have serious consequences such as rising prices for fertilisers and thus also for food.
So far, the production of mineral fertilisers has been based on the use of non-renewable raw materials such as rock phosphate. Our process provides a reliable, sustainable and cost-effective source of phosphate, ensuring a long-term supply for sustainable agriculture.
Our nutrient fertilisers satisfy the highest quality requirements and those of the German Fertiliser Ordinance (DüMV), and are especially suited to ecological agriculture.
The economical means of sustainably fulfilling your recycling obligations. With our partners, we supply you with the appropriate facilities or take over the operation.
In October 2017, lawmakers toughened up regulations governing sewage sludge, in future requiring operators of sewage treatment plants to recover phosphorus and return it to the material cycle. The transition periods run until 2029 and 2032 respectively.
Although there are several known methods for recovering phosphorus, none of them are cost-effective and sustainable in the current circumstances. On the one hand, the management of most of these recovery processes is too complex and thus too expensive, while on the other hand these processes do not result in truly marketable products, leaving sales revenues trailing behind high processing costs.
Pontes pabuli's phosphorus recovery process is already an economically viable method. Sewage sludge ashes are converted into high-quality standard fertilisers, which can be widely sold and generate reliable revenues. Process costs are kept lower than revenues, owing to our use of a comparatively simple and exceptionally energy-efficient process.
STRONG AND RELIABLE PARTNERSHIPS
Innovations are the driving force for new processes and products. They are the basis for technological solutions to new challenges. With our innovative phosphorus reclamation process, we offer an economical and sustainable solution for the legal obligation to recycle phosphorus. However, innovations require strong partnerships as a basis for technical implementation and as a guarantee of economic success.
Our cooperating partners are specialists in their fields, setting standards in their respective fields through innovation and competence. Together with these partners, we can reliably manage the entire phosphorus recovery chain and offer you comprehensive solutions if required. Do you want to implement some of the processes yourself? No problem, in that case we will supply you with the necessary equipment and take care of the remaining tasks. It's completely up to you.
Turn-key systems worldwide that take social responsibility and are state-of-the-art both economically and ecologically. Location- and client-specific.
In order to construct phosphate recovery plants, we have established an efficient cooperation with a reliable specialist plant manufacturer EPC Engineering & Technologies GmbH, who supplies complete recycling plants as a general contractor or tailor-made components for process chains within your recycling concept.
EPC operates internationally as an engineering and plant construction company. Planning and implementing infrastructure projects and industrial plants is their core competence. EPC erects cost-effective, ecologically state-of-the-art and socially responsible turn-key facilities worldwide.
Their engineers combine extensive expertise in various fields, including process design, pipeline construction, measurement and control technology and infrastructure construction, striving to always provide customers with the best possible solutions for their needs. In solving engineering challenges they combine strong innovative capabilities with the maxim of "German Engineering", as well as many years of experience in chemical plant construction. This has been proven through more than 1,000 successfully implemented projects in over 40 countries for more than 145 years.
EPC designs, plans and installs turn-key phosphate recovery plants that use our pontes pabuli process. They take care of all the necessary steps, from the idea to the planning and site selection to negotiating the financing, the construction and the realisation of all necessary secondary facilities, in order to hand over the plant ready for operation. Planning and implementation can be undertaken based on a fixed budget, cost-plus-fee contract or a value engineering approach. As builders of turn-key facilities, the EPC Group offers the necessary flexibility to realise your project in line with your ideas and demands.
Our partner can, if desired, take over the operation of the recycling plant and the sale of products. You can reliably delegate recycling tasks through long-term contracts.
Veolia Klärschlammverwertung Deutschland GmbH is a full-service provider for the transport and recycling of sewage sludge and other residues from sewage treatment plants and nutrient recovery from sewage sludge and sewage sludge ash. Veolia offers its customers short and long-term tailor-made solutions for the professional and sustainable recycling of your sewage sludge - from composting to energetic use for electricity and heat generation.
Veolia supports a responsible handling with the natural resources and the recycling of nutrients. With a contract for incineration and other agreements, Veolia secures the disposal concepts for all sewage sludge also in the future.
Veolia relies on our pontes pabuli process in its operation of phosphorus recovery plants. Furthermore, the excellent customer base of the environmental service provider, on the one hand, ensures that the recycling plant has a reliable supply of sewage sludge ash, while on the other hand helps them to market the products to the agricultural sector.
EEW Energy from Waste (EEW), Germany's leading company in the generation of electricity and heat through utilisation of thermal waste, supports our development and uses our process.
EEW is working extensively on the subject of phosphorus recycling within the scope of their new expansion into the field of mono-incineration of sewage sludge. Striving for their own sustainability goals, EEW is looking to introduce an appropriate phosphorus recycling process for sewage sludge mono-incineration ashes as soon as possible, in order to make it possible to exploit the raw material potential of sewage sludge mono-incineration ashes before the legal requirement comes into force in 2029.
For EEW, thermal recycling of sewage sludge in mono-incineration plants with subsequent recovery of phosphorus from the incineration ash is the most effective way of recovering resources. EEW's sewage sludge mono-incineration plant in the Helmstedter Revier will begin operation as planned in mid-2021, with a further plant in Stapelfeld due to start operation in 2022. The resulting 15,000 tons of municipal mono-sludge incineration ash per year must be recycled and the phosphate contained in it returned to the economic cycle.
In order to be able to put this into practice quickly and to further deepen their know-how, EEW is actively contributing to the technical implementation of our innovative pontes pabuli process. The development contract concluded between pontes pabuli GmbH and EEW reflects our mutual trust in the joint project as well as the potential of this pioneering process. EEW and pontes pabuli have a common goal: to recycle EEW's sludge ashes using the pontes pabuli process well before 2029.
EEW and pontes pabuli have a common goal: to recycle EEW's sludge ashes using the pontes pabuli process well before 2029.
Pontes pabuli - The Nutrient Bridge
Pontes pabuli - The Nutrient Bridge
