RePhoR Webinar Series Continues – New Sessions Starting November 2025

The RePhoR webinar series is entering its next phase – registration is now open. Starting in November 2025, the collaborative projects of the BMFTR funding initiative “Regional Phosphorus Recycling (RePhoR)” will present practical approaches and results on phosphorus recovery and reuse. The webinars are organized by FiW e. V. as part of the scientific transfer project TransPhoR.

Phosphorus is an essential, irreplaceable resource – vital for plant growth and therefore for agriculture. Since Germany has no own phosphate deposits, it is entirely dependent on imports. At the same time, global phosphate reserves are limited and increasingly contaminated with heavy metals. To secure supply and reduce environmental impacts, the amended German Sewage Sludge Ordinance (AbfKlärV) has required since 2017 that wastewater treatment plant operators recover phosphorus from 2029 onwards. However, the development of the necessary infrastructure is progressing slowly. So far, there are only a few concrete plans and large-scale implementations. Many operators face technical, legal, and economic uncertainties, and practical experience with large-scale operation is still scarce. This is precisely where the RePhoR funding initiative of the Federal Ministry for Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR) comes in. Across seven collaborative projects, innovative phosphorus recovery technologies are being tested under real conditions throughout Germany – from struvite fertilizer production to wet-chemical processing of sewage sludge ash. These projects provide valuable insights for planning, permitting, operation, and market introduction.

The RePhoR webinar series offers a platform to share these findings and support the transfer of knowledge into practice. The upcoming sessions will provide insights into current research results and practical applications from the RePhoR collaborative projects:

• Monday, 3 November 2025, 14:00 – 16:00
  Strategic Investment Planning: The ISAH Module Library and Examples from the SATELLITE Project
  This session presents a model-based approach for strategic investment planning in the water sector. Within the SATELLITE project, the ISAH module library was expanded to include phosphorus recovery technologies and further developed into an app-based tool.
   
• Thursday, 20 November 2025, 12:00 – 13:00
  Phosphorus Recycling via the Struvite Pathway – Insights from the P-Net Project
  The P-Net project demonstrates how struvite precipitation can be implemented on a large technical scale for phosphorus recovery. In addition to optimizing the biological Peco process, technical and economic aspects will be presented.
   
• Wednesday, 14 January 2026, 12:00 – 13:00
  From Wastewater to Resource: Solutions from DreiSATS
  The DreiSATS project presents results from pilot-scale demonstrations of sustainable phosphorus recovery – from optimized mono-incineration of sewage sludge to the phosphorus recovery plant “Pontes Pabuli.”

More dates will follow.

Participation in the webinars is free of charge. The events are aimed at stakeholders from politics, public authorities, municipalities, industry, academia, and interested members of the public.

Registration and further information:
www.bmbf-rephor.de/rephor-webinare