The FIC-FIGHTERS project is a 48-month initiative funded by the European Commission. It´s main objective is to valorise phosphogypsum wastes into commercial products through sustainable and circular processes.

As part of the ongoing engineering activities within the FIC-Fighters project, representatives from IDENER.AI, Magtel and Tharsis Mining visited the intermediate pilot plant hosted at the University of Seville. The facility, located at the Faculty of Physics, can process up to 65kg of phosphogypsum per day and serves as the key validation stage before scaling up to a full pre-industrial pilot plant.

The visit focused on reviewing the current performance of the NaOH route, a chemical process patented by project partner CapturaCo₂ that transforms phosphogypsum waste into valuable raw materials, and on align technical objectives among the partners involved in the cale-up phase.

Key conclusions from the visit confirmed that the NaOH route shows consistent operation at intermediate pilot scale, validating the technical viability of the main reaction steps under the conditions tested. At the same time, specific process parameters were identified as requiring fine-tuning reagent consumption, product yield, and separation. As project coordinator, IDENER.AI’s role during this phase focuses on providing process engineering expertise, diagnosing operational bottlenecks, refining mass and energy balances, and preparing the technical groundwork for the design of the demonstration-scale plant. Strong coordination among US, IDENER.AI, Magtel and Tharsis Mining, together with the rest of the consortium, is essential to define responsibilities, and deliverables for the next phase toward pilot demonstration.