Over the past 25 years, Hungary has spent HUF 1,576 billion on sewage treatment projects. Of that, the European Union funded HUF 836 billion (source: Ministry of Interior). It is a widely recognised fact that sewage treatment charges comprise approx. 40–60% of mains water consumption fees, since the facilities entail projects requiring operation, and purifying water comes at a cost.
Waste water sludge neutralisation technology is often omitted from sewage treatment procedures by reason of its cost, even though there are plenty of pathogens that live and reproduce in the sludge. Composting is not neutralisation as such, although it does appear as the key recommendation in the Waste Water Sludge Strategy that has been adopted. This is because around 1/3 of it ends-up in the air (e.g. as ammonia, methane, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide), ultimately polluting the environment.
The purpose of sewage treatment is to produce clean water. Waste water sludge is what remains as residual material, after being “precipitated” from sewage, and rendered non-absorbable by plants. Due to the high concentration of acting elements it contains, it entails a burden for the environment and watercourses.
The heavy metal content of waste water sludge in Budapest (this is data of public interest) comes close to Hungarian regulatory limit values. The thresholds in Slovenia are just one-thirtieth of those! Thus, there are two neighbouring countries within the European Union that set significantly different limit values for heavy metal (e.g. cadmium, mercury and lead) content, meaning that regulation in the EU is not suitable.
The BIOFIVE-ENTECO method is a closed system without any uncontrolled emissions. It decontaminates waste water sludge as a substance, at the site it is generated, using thermal neutralisation. It utilises the green energy that is released. It seeks to use bacteria cultures to transform residual materials—such as ash with heavy metals removed—into feedstock (phosphorus pentoxide) that plants can absorb, and leverages purified combustion gas (CO2) in algae cultures grown for plant cultivation.