Background Eutrophication can occur when a body of water acquires a high concentration of nutrients - phosphates and nitrates – from agricultural, industrial and urban effluents. Systems to efficiently remove nitrogen have been relatively successfully developed; however the elimination of phosphorus components still needs to improve if the EU legislative target of 80% phosphates removal is to be met in an affordable way. Currently, several EU countries including Germany, UK, France and Spain, experience river phosphate concentration levels which reach over 500 μgP/l. Research has shown the critical levels of phosphate concentration which produce an incipient eutrophication to be much lower: 100-200 μgP/l for flowing waters and just 5-10 μgP/l for calm waters. Around 80% of phosphates production is for use as fertilisers, with agriculture still highly dependent on these products to sustain high yields. This leads to accumulation of large amounts of phosphorous in soils and landfills, and contamination of water from effluents and leaching. Furthermore, the phosphates are manufactured from phosphate-containing rock mined from deposits. This phosphate rock is a non-renewable material and is essential for life. The increasing scarcity of phosphate rocks is a significant environmental problem. Objectives The LIFE PHORWater project aims to develop an innovative and cost-effective solution for phosphates recovery in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). Furthermore, it hopes to show that the phosphates can be recovered in a form that can be valorised as fertiliser. It thus hopes to improve the performance of WWTPs, reduce excess phosphorous in the natural environment and limit the demand for mining of phosphate rock. The project will develop a demonstration plant to recover phosphorus from wastewater. This will take the form of a real-scale facility at pre-industrial level coupled to a WWTP. The facility will use a process of precipitation to extract phosphorous in a crystallised form - magnesium ammonium phosphate, known as struvite. The project will work to optimise this integrated process for maximised recovery of phosphorous from WWTPs. Additional economic and environmental advantages are foreseen for the operation of the WWTP. Successful extraction of over 80% of the phosphorous components should reduce the overall quantity of sludge waste produced by the WWTP. Furthermore, the oxygen demand – energy – to reduce levels of ammonia will also be reduced. Overall operating costs for the WWTP are expected to decrease by some 15%. The project aims to show that the struvite obtained from the treatment process is potentially marketable to the fertiliser industry. It will test it in agricultural situations, expecting to show that it has properties that provide significant economic and environmental advantages over other phosphate-based fertilisers. For example, its slow-release nature should reduce the risk of burning plant roots through over-exposure and its insoluble nature in neutral water should restrict leaching into groundwater and avoid risks of eutrophication in surrounding waterways. Expected results: The project expects to achieve the following results: An optimised Phosphorus Management Protocol in WWTPs; A phosphorus recovery efficiency of over 80%; Recovery of some 30% of the phosphates in the form of struvite; Proven valorisation of struvite as a high-quality phosphate fertiliser with reduced risks of leaching and eutrophication; Reduction of phosphate-rock mining; A 10% reduction of sludge production in the WWTP; A 10% reduction in the energy needed to reduce ammonia in the WWTP; A 15% reduction in WWTP operating costs; A reduction in phosphorous non-point pollution from sludge waste; and Reduced eutrophication and associated greenhouse gas emissions.