With the PYREG PX 750, the Abwas­ser­ver­band Main-Taunus has commis­sioned the world­wide most advanced carbo­niza­tion and phos­phorus reco­very plant.

From now on, muni­cipal sewage sludge is sani­tized and recy­cled into phos­phorus ferti­lizer on site in Lors­bach, a climate protec­ting and cost-saving manner.
In the applied PYREG process, the sewage sludge is first dried using the belt drying system from Eliquo Stulz and then carbo­nized by the PYREG reactor tempe­ra­ture of 500°C to 700°C. This carbo­niza­tion elimi­nates any organic pollut­ants such as critical phar­maceu­tical resi­dues, micro­pla­s­tics, PAH, PCDD/F, PCB and hormones. The resul­ting process gas is freed from dust and carbon particles by a process gas filter and trans­ferred to the combus­tion chamber. Combus­tion takes place with a FLOX® burner at tempe­ra­tures of around 1,000 °C. The hot exhaust gases arising there heat the reac­tors indi­rectly via the outer shell of the reac­tors. It is ther­e­fore an auto­thermal process and the gene­rated rene­wable energy is used for the drying of the sewage sludge.
The carbon contained in the sewage sludge is perma­nently bound in the gene­rated biochar from bioso­lids. Used as a phos­phorus ferti­lizer in agri­cul­ture that biochar closes the mate­rial cycle. And it further­more acts as a stable carbon sink for over 1000 years.
The PYREG PX 750 processes 5000 t of dewa­tered sewage sludge per year (or 16 t per day at 7500 opera­ting hours) with 25% dry matter, or 1250 t per year of dried sewage sludge. As a valuable output, the asso­cia­tion gene­rates up to 625 t of biochar form bioso­lids per year with a phos­phorus content of about 15%.

With the commis­sio­ning of this plant, Abwas­ser­ver­band Main-Taunus is taking a resource-saving approach to the legally required reco­very of phos­phorus from sewage sludge. The goal is to use the reco­vered biochar form bioso­lids for agri­cul­tural purpose