Phosphorus is an essential resource for agriculture. It is mainly used in the production of fertilisers, but demand is also growing in several industrial sectors, including battery manufacturing.
Available mineral reserves are limited and largely concentrated outside Europe, making the continent heavily dependent on imports. The gradual depletion of deposits and the classification of phosphate rock as a critical raw material have increased interest in Urban Mining strategies, aimed at recovering resources locally and reducing reliance on non-European suppliers.
In this context, wastewater, sewage sludge and the ash generated by their treatment represent an alternative source of phosphorus that remains largely untapped.
NEOFOS was created to seize this opportunity: developing and testing technologies capable of recovering phosphorus from these streams and transforming it into a new raw material, while reducing waste, lowering the environmental impact of treatment processes and decreasing Europe’s dependence on imports.
MM, a company owned by the Municipality of Milan, is a strategic operational partner in the testing and modelling phases, drawing on the experience gained at its Milan San Rocco and Milan Nosedo treatment plants.
