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A nutrient recovery system planned for a new wastewater treatment plant in Hillsboro is expected to be the largest of its kind in the world.

Clean Water Services will begin construction on its Rock Creek-area plant this summer. When the facility opens in the fall, it will feature a commercial system manufactured by Ostara Nutrient Recovery Technologies Inc.

Ostara’s systems remove nutrients from wastewater that are then turned into a commercial-grade, slow-release fertilizer.

The system that will be installed at the Rock Creek plant will recover 95 percent of the phosphorous and 20 percent of the ammonia found in liquid wastewater. The recovery process should produce about 1,200 tons of fertilizer every year.

Clean Water Services already has a similar, although smaller, Ostara system installed at a wastewater treatment plant in the Durham area. Once the Rock Creek plant is operating at full capacity, the output from the two facilities will make Clean Water Services the world’s largest producer of the fertilizer, which is sold on the market as Crystal Green.