Testbed Ellinge presented at the Biochar Summit 2023
At the Biochar Summit 2023 in Helsingborg, during the Sewage Sludge Pyrolysis in the FPR workshop, several researchers presented their work on sewage sludge biochar. One of them was the project leader of Testbädd Ellinge. Here is a brief summary.
The Biochar Summit, June 12-15 2023, organised by the European Biochar Industry (EBI), the Nordic Biochar Network and the City of Helsingborg. David Gustavsson, the Testbed Ellinge project manager participated in a workshop called Sewage sludge pyrolysis in the FPR. He presented figures of sludge application in Sweden and told about the Revaq certification system and Testbed Ellinge.
From 2024, Revaq also includes sludge biochar (read more about that in this pdf), but it is not possible to credit any separation of micropollutants in the pyrolysis process.
At the workshop, Christian Wieth at Aquagreen and Helmut Gerber at Pyreg also presented EBI’s work in trying to get sludge biochar into the EU’s Fertilising Product Regulation (FPR).
Gerard Cornelissen at the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute (NGI) and the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU), and Katinka Krahn at the Lindum Group talked about the separation and destruction of dioxins, PAHs, PCBs and flame retardants in the pyrolysis process of sewage sludge. Gerard told us that it is very difficult to analyse these substances in sludge biochar and that the conventional labs do not do it properly. However, he stated that the most important thing is to carry out leaching tests to study the bioavailability of the pollutants since they are so tightly bound to the sludge biochar anyway.
Ana-Lucia Crisan from the European Commission DG GROW said that sewage sludge biochar is not excluded from the FPR, but not included either. They will now hire a consultant who will investigate, among other things, the inclusion of sludge biochar in the FPR. The study is expected to start in autumn 2023 and last for two years. The Testbed Ellinge project therefore hope to be able to contribute with a lot of knowledge to this study.