Italmatch Chemicals, an Italian chemical group that is a leading international player, has acquired RecoPhos Project Technology by Israel Chemicals (ICL), including all licenses, IP, know-how and assets related thereto. The goal, for the company founded in 1997 and specialized in the production and marketing of special additives for water and oil & gas treatment, for plastics and for lubricating oils, is to further develop and complete a sustainable and highly efficient process for the recovery of phosphorus from all waste streams containing it (sewage sludge ashes are among them) to produce elemental phosphorus (P4), to which the RecoPhos technology will further contribute.
The historical and current portfolio of Italmatch Chemicals is strongly linked to Elemental phosphorus (P4) as a strategic raw material. Once the RecoPhos (literally “Recovery of Phosphorus”) project is completed, the company will pave a new way to produce elemental phosphorus of the purest quality, starting from "waste" secondary raw materials, helping to reduce the consumption of natural phosphorus, declared as a critical and strategic raw material by the EU due to its limited long-term availability. Phosphorus (P4) is a key raw material for various industrial application fields, such as flame retardants, petroleum additives, crop protectors, pharmaceuticals, electronics, etc. The technology of the RecoPhos project aims to use the recovered phosphorus (P), contained in the ashes deriving from waste streams, replacing the extracted phosphate rock, and thus fully respecting the principles of the circular economy.
“For Italmatch Chemicals – he commented CEO Sergio Iorio – innovation and sustainability are the key factors for the company's long-term success. Our roots, our history, our culture and our guidelines drive us to continue investing in research and development and in innovative and disruptive technologies for the realization of projects that can help disseminate and promote sustainable business practices and circulars. In fact, this operation, completely based on the concept of "circularity" of resources rather than on the exploitation of new ones, follows the recent acquisition of Eco Inhibitors which has allowed Italmatch to present to the market a new class of innovative "anti-caking" products for the off shore drilling, with high environmental compatibility, using natural organic waste as raw material and replacing alternative products derived from petroleum: another perfect example of circular economy".
