An Irish engineering project that removes and recovers phosphorus from treated wastewater and allows it to be used as agricultural fertiliser has won a major global infrastructure engineering award.
The Phosphorus Fixation & Recovery Facility (P Fix) was developed for Uisce Éireann as part of the ongoing upgrade of the Ringsend Wastewater Treatment Plant in Dublin.
It involves the removal of phosphorus from treated wastewater to enhance the water quality in Dublin Bay and its conversion to a pelletised product for potential reuse in a specified Phosphorus fixation reactor. This facility is the first of its kind in Ireland and the largest of its kind in Europe.
The project was commissioned in 2023 by Uisce Éireann, the state-owned water utility company as part of the €500 million upgrade of the Ringsend Wastewater Treatment Plant. The P Fix Project was developed by the 3JV engineering consortium involving TJ O’Connor & Associates, a Dublin-based firm, JB Barry & Partners, part of Egis Group, a global engineering and operations firm, and Netherlands-based, global consulting and engineering firm Royal HaskoningDHV.
It forms an integral part of the upgraded facility allowing for the recovery of Phosphorus from wastewater. The process forms pearly coloured granules, which can be used as a slow-release agricultural fertiliser.
Earlier this year, the P Fix Project was named Project of the Year by the Association of Consulting Engineers of Ireland at the organisation’s Engineering Excellence Awards.
It was subsequently shortlisted among 15 leading entries for the International Federation of Consulting Engineers’ Project Awards 2024 and was named the overall winner in the small to medium category, making it one of three winners announced at a gala event in Geneva on Tuesday 10 September.
The project was the only one in Europe to be shortlisted and faced competition from other major developments across nine other countries including the Jakarta-Bandung High Speed Railway in Indonesia, Boryeong Subsea Tunnel in South Korea and the My Thuan 2 bridge construction project in Vietnam.
The International Federation of Consulting Engineers (FIDIC) is the global representative body for national associations of consulting engineers and represents over one million engineering professionals and 40,000 firms in about 100 countries worldwide.
The Project Awards recognise the achievements and successes of consulting engineering member firms and their clients across the globe and the important impact their projects have on social, economic and environmental quality of life around the world.
In total, the project was one of three winners. The other two winners were Réseau Express Métropolitain (REM) – South Shore segment in Canada and Viaduct Quanzhou Bay Sea-crossing Bridge on Fuzhou-Xiamen High-speed Railway in China, under the megaproject and medium to large project categories, respectively. All other entrants were highly commended.
Eddie Fitzgerald, Project Director for TJ OConnor, said: “The Phosphorus Fixation Facility in Ringsend is a significant development as part of the overall treatment plant upgrade and one of which we are very proud. It’s a great example of the circular economy in action and it’s rewarding to see it being recognised alongside other leading projects worldwide.”
Marcus Fagan, Project Director for Egis, said: “At Egis we are focussed on building bigger and better with an emphasis on sustainability and resilient infrastructure. The P Fix project is a great example of how engineering can drive the circular economy. This new and much-needed development facilitates growth while ensuring environmental standards are met, but it is also specifically designed to recover a useable product that used to go to waste.”
Paul Janssen, Project Director for Royal HaskoningDHV said: “This is the first time phosphorus is being extracted from wastewater in Ireland and being turned into a valuable resource. The scale and the numbers on the Ringsend wastewater facility are always impressive, as is the case for the P fix plant. We are proud that the project’s innovation and its impact have been recognised as being of global importance.”
