Three European waste water treatment plants with ELODRY® low-temperature belt dryers featured in WWT magazine.

Efficient sewage sludge drying is becoming increasingly important across Europe. The reasons are clear: stricter legal requirements, rising disposal costs and the growing need to use resources more efficiently while reducing emissions. The latest issue of the trade magazine WWT – Wasser, Abwasser & Technik features three wastewater treatment plants in Austria, Germany and the Czech Republic that faced different local challenges – yet found a common solution: energy-efficient sludge drying with the ELODRY® low-temperature belt dryer from ELIQUO TECHNOLOGIES.

Energy efficiency as a central element of modern sludge treatment

Drying is no longer an optional process step, but a key prerequisite for sustainable sludge utilisation. By reducing water content, transport volumes and costs are significantly lowered, secondary digestion is prevented and sludge handling on site is improved.

At the same time, drying forms the technical basis for almost all utilisation and recovery pathways – from mono-incineration and phosphorus recovery to innovative approaches such as biochar or fuel production.

Energy efficiency plays a decisive role in this process: the ELODRY® makes use of available waste heat from biogas utilisation, district heating, pyrolysis or industrial processes, and operates with low thermal and electrical energy demand, stable performance and minimal odour emissions.

Three projects – three approaches, one goal

The article presents three exemplary plants that show how different motivations can lead to the same solution – and how flexibly the drying technology can be adapted:

Austria (Tyrol): Reduction of disposal costs through minimised transport volumes and the use of waste heat from biogas cogeneration.

Germany (Lorsbach): Decentralised sludge utilisation by combining drying and carbonisation, with waste heat from pyrolysis fed back into the process.

Czech Republic (Trutnov): Implementation of a viable business case focusing on carbonisate as a reusable product and phosphorus recovery.

These projects clearly demonstrate that sludge drying is not just an intermediate step, but an integral part of a sustainable, future-proof sludge utilisation strategy.  

ELODRY® – energy-efficient, safe, proven

The ELODRY® low-temperature belt dryer from ELIQUO TECHNOLOGIES has been specifically developed for municipal and industrial wastewater treatment plants.

It is characterised by the following features:

• Made in Germany – manufactured in the Black Forest
• Optimised heat and power consumption
• Use of available waste heat sources
• Ex-zone-free design and low-odour operation
• Proven performance in numerous projects across Europe

Learn more

Read the full article in WWT – Wasser, Abwasser & Technik:

To the article in WWT (Issue 10/2025)