June 11, 2014: The workshop "Phosphorus for agriculture - strategies for a limited resource" held at the ATB aroused great interest among representatives from academia, industry and administration.

Recent research results and potential concepts for recovery and utilization of phosphorus were presented and discussed by the more than 80 participants from the perspective of environmental protection, water management, waste management, fertilizer industry, and ultimately the agricultural application. 

MAP, a new P fertilizer produced near Berlin from sewage sludge was presented. The potentials for P-recovery from sewage and waste stream were discussed as well as the economic opportunities and limitations for MAP production and utilization in Berlin-Brandenburg. Detlef May, CEO of LVAT Grosskreutz, and Markus Winzeler, farmer in Gerswalde, stressed that new P fertilizers would be adopted in practice, as long as the costs justify the application. As representative of the fertilizer industry, Dr. Georg Ebert, Head of R & D Center of Compo Expert GmbH pointed out, that there is still "a long way to go" from the raw material to the fertilizer.   

Contributions of the workshop (PDF, in German only)  here...