3. International VDI Conference - Sewage Sludge Treatment

08:30 Registration & Welcome Coffee

Chairs' Welcome and opening address

Prof. Peter Quicker, Chairholder, RWTH Aachen - Unit of Technologies of Fuels; Dr.-Ing. Ragnar Warnecke, Managing Director, GKS - Gemeinschaftskraftwerk Schweinfurt GmbH, both: Germany

I. Legislation, Policy and Legal Implications for international Projects

EU Legislation on Energy and Materials from Waste

• Recycling: Quantity vs. quality?
• How to achieve a non-toxic environment?
• Diversion from landfills
• Boosting recovery from bottom ash

Dr. Ella Stengler, Managing Director, CEWEP, Belgium

Implementing EU Waste Rules and Recycling Goals

• Sources of EU waste legislation, control and procedure by the EU
• Main targets, time horizon 2020 and 2030
• Current implementation in member countries
• Investments and markets

Mark Döing, General Manager, ecoprog GmbH, Germany

Pursuing Energy from Waste Projects: Structures and recent Developments in the Middle Eastern and North African Region

• Market overview and driver
• Regulatory framework on selected countries
• Case studies: Kuwait, Dubai and Oman
• Legal pitfalls and considerations

Dr. Tobias Faber, Lawyer/Partner, Hogan Lovell, Germany

Networking & Coffee Break

II. Perspectives on Emerging and Established Markets

The future Role of WtE in the Circular Economy

• Sustainability and value creation through CE
• Residual waste produced within CE and how to deal with it throught WtE
• Double role of WtE: Use of residual waste & keeping circles safe and clean
• WtE as an enabler to make CE happen
• The need of further investments to achieve CE package goals

Emerging Countries and Markets for Waste-to-Energy

• Global waste development, EfW market overview
• Importance of value chain
• Alternative waste management strategies
• Dynamic of selected „Waste-to-Energy“ emerging markets

Amedeo Vaccani, Managing Director, A.Vaccani&Partner, Switzerland

The Role of Product Regulations and Standards in the Circular EconomT

• Revisiting the concept of end-of-waste and its function in a circular economy
• How “circular” are existing product regulations and standards?
• How to deal with the absence of (circular) product regulations and standards?
• Contribution of product regulations and standards to secondary products and raw materials movement in the internal market

Emiel de Bruijne, Consultant, co-author: Ferdinand Zotz, both: Resource and Waste Management Department, Ramboll, Germany

What‘s happening on both Sides of the Channel for Waste-to-Energy?

• What‘s the WtE market status in France?
• What‘s the story of WtE success in UK?
• What‘s the evolution of alternative thermal treatment in UK?
• Some case studies of projects and realization in both countries

Christophe Cord‘homme, Business & Products Development Director, CNIM Group, France

Lunch

III. Status Quo of Sewage Sludge Treatment

Treatment of Sewage Sludge – Introduction and Overview

• Disposal structures, quantities and capacities
• Treatment and disposal options for sewage sludge
• Thermal treatment technologies

Prof. Peter Quicker, Chairholder, RWTH Aachen - Unit of Technologies of Fuels, Germany

Alternative Techniques for thermal Treatment of Sewage Sludge from medium sized Sewage Treatment Plants

• Technical framework of pyrolysis and gasification processes for the treatment of municipal sewage sludge
• First experiences from two projects with alternative treatment techniques in Linz-Unkel and Renningen
• Outlook on alternative thermal processes considering the recovery of phosphorus or the use of treatment residues as fertilizer

Markus Gleis, Scientific Staff, German Environment Agency, Germany

15:45 Excursion to INDAVER and SLECO:Waste-to-Energy Plant ECLUSE

Get-together

At the end of the first conference day we kindly invite you to use the relaxed and informal atmosphere for in-depth conversations with other participants and speakers.

IV. Sludge Incineration and Plant Concepts

P-Recovery from Sludge

• Current state of P-recovery from sludge
• Legislation and technology challenges
• Developments in the Netherlands and Germany

M.Sc. Renske Verhulst, Nutrient Platform, Netherlands and Dr. Daniel Frank, Managing Director, Deutsche Phosphor-Plattform e.V., Germany

Low Temperature Belt Drying: An efficient, safe and environmentally-friendly Solution when well done!

• Energy efficiency: Enhanced waste heat recovery
• Intrinsically safe: Out of ATEX application
• Odour management: Not only the dryer process air
• Application field: Examples of a broad range of applications

Lynne Bouchy, International Business Development, Suez, Spain

Electro-Dewatering (EDW) of Sludge: A technological Solution to turn a Problem into an Opportunity

• Mechanical sludge dewatering achieves maximum dry solid content of 30%
• EDW: Dry solid content up to 45%, compatible with monoincineration without prior thermal drying
• EDW: Effective on aerobically stabilized sludge
• High energy consumption of EDW is counterbalanced by lower costs in transport and disposal

MScEng, Simone Visigalli, Research Fellow, co-authors: PhD Andrea Turolla, Post-Doc Fellow Researcher; Prof. Roberto Canziani, Professor, all: Politecnico di Milano, Italy

Networking & Coffee Break

Integrated Concepts for thermal Sludge Recycling with Option for phosphorus Recovery

• Efficiently combined drying and thermal utilisation of sewage sludge in a fluidized bed furnace
• Sludge drying with the innovative HUBER belt dryer system
• Production of phosphorus-rich sewage sludge ash & optional phosphorus recovery

Harald Plank, Managing Director, sludge2energy GmbH - Team leader Sludge Drying of HUBER SE, co-author: Dipl.-Ing.(FH) Sonja Wiesgickl, Sales Engineer, sludge2energy GmbH, both: Germany

On Site Thermal Treatment of Sludge using Gasification as Core Technology

• Evaluation of the sludge used
• Finding the needs of the wastewater treatment plant
• How it might look like

Dr. Johannes Judex, Development, Kopf SynGas GmbH & Co KG, Germany

Lunch

V. Recovery of Phosphorus and other Resources from Sludge

Ammonia Recovery from Wastewater and Digestate as Nitrogen Fertilizer

• Closing the nitrogen cycle
• Recovery of ammonium sulphate or nitrate
• Proven concept with business case of € 0.5 - 3.0 per kg N recovered, depending on ammonium concentration and local circumstances

Wilbert Menkveld, Manager Research, Development & Technology, Nijhuis Water Technology B.V., Belgium

Proven full scale Struvite Technology for Phosphate Recovery

• Struvite recovery and Long term full scale experience
• Dosing only Mg(OH)2
• Simultaneous PO4 recovery and BOD removal
• Downstream nitrogen removal by anammox

Dr. Tim Hendrickx, Process Specialist and Product Manager, and Emil Sandstra, Sales Manager Benelux, both: Paques bv, The Netherlands

Sewage Sludge Utilization with the TetraPhos® Process

• Legal framework: Challenge and opportunity
• Sewage sludge recycling: Source of energy and valuable ressources
• Phosphorus recycling: Findings, possibilities and economic implementation

Ralf Czarnecki, CEO, REMONDIS Aqua Stoffstrom GmbH & Co. KG, Germany

Networking & Coffee Break

Phosphorus Recovery Actions in Copenhagen

• The history of investigations in BIOFOS
• Why not struvite
• Electrodialysis and Pilot experiments with Ash2Pho
• Design of a demonstration plant

Dines Thornberg, Development Manager, BIOFOS A/S, Denmark

Sewage Sludge - An alternative Source for Phosphorus and Fuels for the Cement Industry

• Impact of the new German fertilizer ordinance
• Potentials of phosphorus recovery
• Budenheim ExtraPhos® Process
• Co-processing in the cement manufacturing process

Dr. Erwin Schmidl, Consultant, co-author: Dr. Hubert Baier, GM, WhiteLabel-TandemProjects e.U., Germany

Incineration Technologies for Sewage Sludge

• Co-combustion and Mono-combustion
• Overview of P-recovery processes

Dipl.-Phys. Edmund Fleck, Managing Director, MARTIN GmbH für Umwelt- und Energietechnik, Germany

Conference chair‘s closing remarks

16:45 End of conference