Oil, natural gas, as well as nutrients such as phosphorus: they are finite raw materials that will run out if we do not use them sparingly. A phosphorus shortage would have major consequences for global food production. Nedmag contributes to phosphorus recovery with magnesium hydroxide.
Phosphorus is an important ingredient in artificial fertiliser and is therefore of great importance to our food production. Phosphorus eventually ends up in wastewater via the soil; the water is purified by wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs).
Challenge
Removing phosphorus from wastewater is a huge challenge for many WWTPs. It requires chemical or highly advanced techniques that are expensive or produce a large amount of chemical waste. As a result, a lot of phosphorus is left in our water. This is less innocuous than it sounds. Phosphorus leaves a lot of deposits in valves and pipes, resulting in shorter service live and high maintenance costs. It also causes strong algae growth in surface water, which throws nature off balance.
Our solution: magnesium hydroxide
Now that phosphorus is at risk of depletion, the Dutch government has obliged WWTPs to fully recover phosphate from wastewater by 2030. Nedmag works together with WWTPs to support them in this mission. Our solution: magnesium hydroxide. When magnesium hydroxide is added to wastewater it reacts with phosphate. This results in the controlled production of struvite.
The benefits of struvite
The resulting struvite has many benefits. For example, it can be used as fertiliser, so that food production is not compromised, but it also prevents deposits in water pipes and reduces odour nuisance from sewage. More importantly, the phosphorus recovery with magnesium hydroxide is safe in use.
We already deliver our products to multiple WWTPs in the Netherlands. Furthermore, we are currently running pilots with our product in various other locations.