Resource recovery from sediments

Environmental sins create overgrowing bays

Ongoing research removing phosphorus from bottom sediments in bays and archipelagos is generating new method that partly reduces the internal load on the Baltic Sea ecosystem, and partly makes it possible to return phosphorus as a resource in the food chain. The hope is to be able to take advantage of the resource of phosphorus found in the ocean's sediments and transform the problem into an advantage.

KTH's initiative to remove phosphorus

The scientific approach is based on biochemical processes to remove phosphorus that were previously used in advanced sewage treatment. A test case has been developed around a shallow bay on Utö in the Stockholm archipelago where different methods for sediment treatment are tested on a laboratory scale.

In the next step, KTH intends to build and test a smaller bioreactor for continuous operation. It is an important step in the research process and method development. It is also crucial for assessing the potential in reducing the Baltic Sea's internal load and achieving resource recovery.

In collaboration with the Baltic Sea Initiative

Based on the experience at the demo plant at Hammarby (co-owned with IVL) KTH prepare field-test methods removing phosphorous from natural sediments on Utö. This can help restoring ecological systems and particularly fish nurseries in the Baltic. In a next stage a bio-reactor is being installed and made operational on Utö.

The project is carried out for one year and is based at the Department of Chemical Engineering. Field test take place in close collaboration with actors on Utö. Collaboration also takes place with other researchers within KTH's Baltic Sea Initiative, primarily around electronic monitoring (e-monitoring) of the wetlands on Utö .

The team consists of associate professor Zeynep Cetecioglu Gurol  (project manager), post-doc researcher Ece Kendir Cakmak and doctoral student Fengyi Zhu.