Finnish company NPHarvest has completed an industrial-scale demonstration of its nutrient recovery technology in Germany, successfully recovering nitrogen and phosphorus from digestate under real-world operating conditions while attracting interest from wastewater and biogas operators across Europe.

The approximately two-month demonstration took place at an industrial site in Bakum, Germany, where the company's system processed digestate with total solids loads up to three times its design specification. According to NPHarvest, the unit achieved peak ammonia-nitrogen recovery of 90.6% and consistently operated within its target recovery range of 70% to 90% when feed conditions met design specifications.

The technology is designed to recover nitrogen and phosphorus from wastewater, digestate and industrial side streams, producing fertilizer inputs from nutrient-rich waste streams. NPHarvest said about 30 wastewater and biogas operators visited the demonstration site within weeks of the system becoming operational to evaluate the technology.

"This demonstration shows the recovery can be done at industrial scale," said Dr. Juho Uzkurt Kaljunen, CEO of NPHarvest, in a press release. "The strong operator interest tells us the market is ready for it."

Following the successful trial, the demonstration unit will be deployed in Italy for additional testing. The company said the project comes as utilities and biogas facilities seek new approaches to nutrient recovery amid growing interest in domestic fertilizer production and resource recovery from wastewater and organic waste streams.