The treatment of sewage sludge is a great challenge for the operators of wastewater treatment plants. On the one hand, the required processes and procedures are very energy- and cost-intensive and on the other hand, the legal framework has become extremely extensive in recent years. In addition, the treatment of sewage sludge also removes nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorus, which are relevant for fertilizer production and are subsequently lost as a result. The aim should be to isolate these nutrients in the course of treatment and to recover them in a targeted manner. This paper first discusses the legal basis, as well as the differences in the distribution of sewage sludge utilization for Austria, Germany and Switzerland. Subsequently, a potential estimation of ammonium for the region Mur-/Mürztal is made, based on the results from the first phase of the project "Regional value creation through innovative sewage sludge utilization". In the experimental part of this paper, the potential, as well as the suitability of samples from different sewage sludge treatment processes for NH4+- recovery using the ion exchange loop stripping (ILS) method is investigated. Samples from a spray condenser and an acid scrubber, located downstream of the drying process, as well as a process water sample from hydrothermal sewage sludge treatment (HTC) are used for the tests. During these experiments, also methods for the photometric analysis of highly colored or turbid liquids, as well as liquids with high NH4+ concentrations were developed. The most promising values in terms of separation efficiency, loading as well as regeneration performance were provided by the HTC-process water sample, followed by the acid scrubber and spray condenser.