Project description
Cost-effective bio-based fertiliser production from waste streams
Recent studies have identified three main waste streams for producing bio-based fertilisers (BBFs): manure, sewage sludge, and food chain waste. Although manure is the largest waste stream, most of it is unsuitable for high-quality fertiliser production due to pollutants. The potential of sewage sludge and food chain waste remains underutilised. The EU-funded ReLeaf project will create essential BBF ingredients from common European waste streams. Specifically, it will demonstrate extraction techniques at five sites and produce cost-effective BBFs at two sites to reduce reliance on foreign supply chains and petroleum-based resources in fertiliser production. Additionally, the project will assess the effectiveness of BBFs in different climate and soil conditions across four fields.
Objective
Several studies have identified 3 main waste streams that are the most promising for being valorised to obtain bio-based fertilisers (BBFs): (1) manure, (2) sewage sludge, and (3) food chain waste. From these, manure is the largest waste stream, representing more than 70% of the nutrients, but several studies have been conducted in the last 10 years aimed at its valorisation as BBF and have shown that it is a feasible feedstock for obtaining N-rich streams and organic amendments that can be used directly as BBF, but most of them are not suitable to be used as ingredients for centralised high quality fertiliser production due to the presence of pollutants such as heavy metals (mainly Zn and Cu) and organic matter. Sewage sludge and food chain waste have not yet been deeply investigated at the levels required for industrial implementation, such that their fertilising potential is still under-exploited.
The ReLEAF project is based on the advancement and widespread demonstration (in 5 technology demonstration sites) of a suite of extraction techniques to produce key BBF ingredients from waste streams prevalent across Europe – sewage sludge, fish processing waste and wastewater, mixed food waste, and agri-food residues. The formulation and production (in 2 sites) of cost-effective BBFs will address the serious issues of externalities (i.e. dependency on foreign supply chains (P and K), and petroleum-based resources (N)) from fertiliser production and use in European soils together with security of supply and waste valorisation. Investigations of the effectiveness and replicability of the BBFs within the varying climate conditions and soil ecosystems of 4 different field demonstration sites, in addition to co-creation activities, will allow for regional engagement with stakeholders to promote widespread acceptance, while industrial involvement will facilitate a rapid scale up and industrialisation of proposed technologies.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.2.6 - Food, Bioeconomy Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment
MAIN PROGRAMME
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HORIZON.2.6.6 - Bio-based Innovation Systems in the EU Bioeconomy
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-JU-IA - HORIZON JU Innovation Actions
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) HORIZON-JU-CBE-2023
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
08225 Terrassa
Spain
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.