There we go! The second Swedish Sewage Sludge Biochar Conference completed

145 people from 17 countries participated when Testbed Ellinge organised the second Swedish Sewage Sludge Biochar Conference in Malmö last week.

The main purpose of the conference was to gather different stakeholders around sludge biochar, municipal operations, consultants, companies and universities, in one place to be able to exchange experiences, network and clear up questions. The lectures touched on various subject areas such as sludge biochar’s physical properties, carbon persistence, phosphorus availability, separation of organic micropollutants and heavy metals, co-pyrolysis, utilisation of sludge biochar for purification from organic micropollutants, business models and system studies.

No fewer than 32 different speakers took the stage. Four companies (AquaGreen, Next Generation Elements, PYREG, and VOW) presented their technologies for producing sewage sludge biochar. The day before the conference, we organised a study visit in collaboration with AquaGreen to Fårevejle wastewater treatment plant. On the final day, more than 50 people visited Testbed Ellinge’s pilot plant at Ellinge wastewater treatment plant.

PYREG highlighted that we should not really call the process we normally use to produce sludge biochar for pyrolysis. In pure pyrolysis, a water phase and an oil phase are also produced. We prefer to avoid these phases in the application at WWTPs, as we want to burn all the residue, apart from the biochar, in the gas burner to use the heat energy for drying. Its liquid phases are not normally formed in large quantities as we probably get some oxygen into the process partly via trapped air in the sludge, partly from the water that remains in the sludge after drying, but partly also due to other intrusion. PYREG’s proposal is that we should call it carbonisation. During gasification, controlled addition of oxygen takes place.

Thank you for all the kind words from those who participated! The third Swedish Conference on Sewage Sludge Biochar will take place in October 2026.

Ett stort antal människor uppställda i en bred trappa

More than 150 participants in the second Swedish Sewage Sludge Biochar Conference in Malmö 15-17 October.

Belongs to project

Testbed Ellinge