Struvite recovery technology among GreenTec award winners

The GreenTec Awards were presented this year at a gala and awards ceremony, held at the Tempodrom Berlin, which was attended by around 1000 guests.

The environmental and business prize was founded in 2008 by engineers Marco Voigt and Sven Krüger, who had the aim of creating an environmental award as significant and far-reaching as the Oscars. According to Voigt, the 2015 awards were “the biggest and the most challenging ones we have put on so far”.

Among the winners on the night was Berliner Wasserbetriebe (BWB), which won the Recycling & Resources category. The company was recognised for its use of the AirPrex struvite recovery system, which removes the magnesium ammonium phosphate from the sewage treatment plant cycle. The technology is owned by CNP-Technology Water and Biosolids and available in Australia through Hydroflux.

John Koumoukelis, a director of Hydroflux, said there are several benefits of removing phosphate from sewage sludge in wastewater treatment plants. He said, “While AirPrex can successfully remove struvite — which can then be on-sold as fertiliser — it can also reduce phosphorus load returned to the plant by as much as 90%, reduce polymer consumption, create higher cake solids and reduce a plant’s overall operational expenditure.”

Other GreenTec award winners for 2015 include:

• Automobility: The Multimodal Route Planner, by BMW, takes public transport into account while navigating and also suggests it if the driver would reach their destination more quickly that way.
• Construction & Living: Holzschaum — natural hard foam without fossil oil for insulation and packaging by Fraunhofer Institute for Wood Research, Wilhelm-Klauditz-Institute (WKI) — can be used as insulation, packaging and lightweight construction material.
• Energy: Smart Country — Grids for Future Electricity Supply: Pilot Project Eifel, by RWE Deutschland, offers a solution for distribution networks so that regenerative electricity generation can be integrated into the system.
• Communication: The BMW i8 is the first plug-in hybrid vehicle of the BMW Group.
• Lifestyle: Little Sun develops solar-powered lamps in the shape of a sun for regions without energy supply.
• Production: Qmilch Deutschland produces a natural fibre from non-food milk with low impact on the climate and natural resources.
• Travel: LNG Hybrid Barge, by Becker Marine Systems, provides harbouring cruise ships with energy by using liquefied natural gas.
• Urbanization: SEMIZENTRAL Germany — Infrastructure Solutions for the Cities of the Future, by Darmstadt University of Technology, is a supply and disposal concept which grows with a city.
• Water & Sewage: Water 3.0 — StressFix, by Koblenz-Landau University, is a hybrid pebble gel that is able to absorb, chemically transform and bind pharmaceutical residues.
• Galileo Wissenspreis: Eco Monsters, by Anastasia Bondarenko, is an app that teaches environmental consciousness to toddlers.
• Special Award in Music: Nena.
• Special Award ProSiebenSat.1 Accelerator Startup: Fairphone is a socially and ecologically sustainable mobile phone with a transparent supply chain.
• WWF Special Award: Land of Wildcats, by Jagdverein Hubertus Kreis Eschwege eV, protects the threatened species and its habitats at the rivers Werra and Meißner.

Image credit: Berliner Wasserbetriebe.