Final Report Summary - PHOSFARM (Process for sustainable phosphorus recovery from agricultural residues by enzymatic process to enable a service business for the benefit of European farm community)
Executive Summary:
PhosFarm addressed the increasing market for sustainable and economic phosphorus (P) recovery from agricultural residues to meet growing demand for food, bio-fuels and bio-materials. The EU countries are highly vulnerable to the foreseeable P scarcity because of its entire dependency on imported phosphate rock for fertilizer production. To avoid this dependency, new technologies have been developed to recover soluble inorganic P as phosphate salts. However, in agricultural residues more than 40% of the P is present as insoluble P compounds, among them organic P. Thus, this share is not available for precipitation as P-salts by state of the art technologies. PhosFarm is a partnership of European SMEs that recognized the business opportunity of recovering P from agricultural and food residues by a novel process that recovers both organic and inorganic P. The key innovation of the project is the enhanced phosphate recovery from agricultural and food residues through the controlled mineralization and solubilisation of organic and inorganic P. For this, a process using hydrolysing enzymes that remove the phosphates groups from organic substrates was tested on suitable organic residues with high organic P content. The result was an increased phosphate concentration in the liquid fraction, which was recovered in a precipitation process as valuable mineral fertiliser. Furthermore, out of the solid fraction a stable organic soil improver with low P content was produced avoiding the risk of P over-application on fields. In this way, the fertilizer product can be commercialised as dried P-salts and also organic soil improver compounded on customer demand.
The proposed PhosFarm technology will increase the competitiveness of the SME consortium by achieving knowledge and a unique technology capable of opening up new market opportunities for the consortium, as well as for the European SME farm business by being supplied with a service that creates valuable products from organic residues from the agricultural sector
Project Context and Objectives:
The overall objective of the PhosFarm project was to develop a technology for the efficient recovery of phosphorus from agricultural residues, including a novel enzymatic process for the mineralisation of the organic phosphorus compounds in order to increase the total phosphorus recovery will be increased by 30 to 80%.
Other objectives of the project included:
1. To evaluate and define parameters for the enzyme mineralization of organic phosphorus compounds in agricultural residues
2. To investigate the immobilization process of phosphatases on bead materials
3. To evaluate the phosphorus precipitation process from the liquid fraction of agricultural residues which contains higher P concentration
4. To evaluate an optimize an emission-free drying process for the production of a stable organic solid
5. To produce valuable fertilizer products with nutrient content on demand
Project Results:
Several animal manure, digestate and food residues samples were characterized regarding their physical and chemical properties. It was successfully verified that the nutrient recovery potential from these residues was considerable. Moreover, no contamination of heavy metals or organic pollutant was found, which means that these residues were suitable for fertilizer production.
The enzymatic mineralization of organic phosphorus was carried out using agricultural residues (animal manure, digestate) and food residues. The inorganic phosphorus content could be successfully increased by the PhosFarm technology. The immobilized enzymes were subsequently used in a column set-up to hydrolyse phosphorus in a continuous way. A constant mineralization of organic P into inorganic phosphate was achieved in a continuous operation.
A pilot plant was constructed to recovered phosphorus from organic residues. The plant was operated continuously under stable conditions. The products obtained were high quality P-salts and stable dry organic solid. The quality of the products was verified by chemical analysis and horticultural test. It was successfully determined that the products are comparable in efficiency to commercial conventional phosphorus fertilisers.
A life cycle assessment of the PhosFarm process was carried out. The study included an analysis of the impact on energy use, climate change in a 20 and 100 years perspective, particular matter formation, terrestrial acidification and freshwater eutrophication and terrestrial and freshwater eco-toxicity. The PhosFarm technology was compared with different state of the art scenarios. The results showed that the PhosFarm technology had the lower impact on ammonia emission, soil acidification, particle matter formation and eutrophication. If the PhosFarm technology is combined with the use of renewable energy the impact on primary energy use and global warming is also lower when compared with current used practices
Potential Impact:
With the results of the project the recovery of phosphorus from organic residues was increased to achieve a level of industrial and commercial efficiency leading to higher amounts of products that can be commercialised. As a result of the PhosFarm project a modular unit was developed that can be operated stand-alone or easily integrated with current facilities treating organic residues.
Exploitation of the project results will solve the growing challenges in the agricultural sector and increase conversion of organic waste that is currently used in an inefficient way. It will also help create a an alternative renewable source of basic components to the fertiliser industry.
With the expected 82 running PhosFarm plants after 6 years post project we will be able to produce per year over 16,400 tonnes of phosphate salts and 24,600 tonnes of nitrogen salts and 65,600 million tonnes of pathogen-free organic soil conditioner. Europe is currently strategically vulnerable to unstable third countries for supplies raw materials for the P fertiliser production (phosphate rock), which is non-renewable resource. The PhosFarm products would avoid the non-renewable sources used to make fertiliser, while providing an indigenous source of phosphate fertiliser for Europe
List of Websites:
www.phosfarm.eu
Dr. Jennifer Bilbao
jennifer.bilbao@igb.fraunhofer.de
Telefon +49 711 970-3646
PhosFarm addressed the increasing market for sustainable and economic phosphorus (P) recovery from agricultural residues to meet growing demand for food, bio-fuels and bio-materials. The EU countries are highly vulnerable to the foreseeable P scarcity because of its entire dependency on imported phosphate rock for fertilizer production. To avoid this dependency, new technologies have been developed to recover soluble inorganic P as phosphate salts. However, in agricultural residues more than 40% of the P is present as insoluble P compounds, among them organic P. Thus, this share is not available for precipitation as P-salts by state of the art technologies. PhosFarm is a partnership of European SMEs that recognized the business opportunity of recovering P from agricultural and food residues by a novel process that recovers both organic and inorganic P. The key innovation of the project is the enhanced phosphate recovery from agricultural and food residues through the controlled mineralization and solubilisation of organic and inorganic P. For this, a process using hydrolysing enzymes that remove the phosphates groups from organic substrates was tested on suitable organic residues with high organic P content. The result was an increased phosphate concentration in the liquid fraction, which was recovered in a precipitation process as valuable mineral fertiliser. Furthermore, out of the solid fraction a stable organic soil improver with low P content was produced avoiding the risk of P over-application on fields. In this way, the fertilizer product can be commercialised as dried P-salts and also organic soil improver compounded on customer demand.
The proposed PhosFarm technology will increase the competitiveness of the SME consortium by achieving knowledge and a unique technology capable of opening up new market opportunities for the consortium, as well as for the European SME farm business by being supplied with a service that creates valuable products from organic residues from the agricultural sector
Project Context and Objectives:
The overall objective of the PhosFarm project was to develop a technology for the efficient recovery of phosphorus from agricultural residues, including a novel enzymatic process for the mineralisation of the organic phosphorus compounds in order to increase the total phosphorus recovery will be increased by 30 to 80%.
Other objectives of the project included:
1. To evaluate and define parameters for the enzyme mineralization of organic phosphorus compounds in agricultural residues
2. To investigate the immobilization process of phosphatases on bead materials
3. To evaluate the phosphorus precipitation process from the liquid fraction of agricultural residues which contains higher P concentration
4. To evaluate an optimize an emission-free drying process for the production of a stable organic solid
5. To produce valuable fertilizer products with nutrient content on demand
Project Results:
Several animal manure, digestate and food residues samples were characterized regarding their physical and chemical properties. It was successfully verified that the nutrient recovery potential from these residues was considerable. Moreover, no contamination of heavy metals or organic pollutant was found, which means that these residues were suitable for fertilizer production.
The enzymatic mineralization of organic phosphorus was carried out using agricultural residues (animal manure, digestate) and food residues. The inorganic phosphorus content could be successfully increased by the PhosFarm technology. The immobilized enzymes were subsequently used in a column set-up to hydrolyse phosphorus in a continuous way. A constant mineralization of organic P into inorganic phosphate was achieved in a continuous operation.
A pilot plant was constructed to recovered phosphorus from organic residues. The plant was operated continuously under stable conditions. The products obtained were high quality P-salts and stable dry organic solid. The quality of the products was verified by chemical analysis and horticultural test. It was successfully determined that the products are comparable in efficiency to commercial conventional phosphorus fertilisers.
A life cycle assessment of the PhosFarm process was carried out. The study included an analysis of the impact on energy use, climate change in a 20 and 100 years perspective, particular matter formation, terrestrial acidification and freshwater eutrophication and terrestrial and freshwater eco-toxicity. The PhosFarm technology was compared with different state of the art scenarios. The results showed that the PhosFarm technology had the lower impact on ammonia emission, soil acidification, particle matter formation and eutrophication. If the PhosFarm technology is combined with the use of renewable energy the impact on primary energy use and global warming is also lower when compared with current used practices
Potential Impact:
With the results of the project the recovery of phosphorus from organic residues was increased to achieve a level of industrial and commercial efficiency leading to higher amounts of products that can be commercialised. As a result of the PhosFarm project a modular unit was developed that can be operated stand-alone or easily integrated with current facilities treating organic residues.
Exploitation of the project results will solve the growing challenges in the agricultural sector and increase conversion of organic waste that is currently used in an inefficient way. It will also help create a an alternative renewable source of basic components to the fertiliser industry.
With the expected 82 running PhosFarm plants after 6 years post project we will be able to produce per year over 16,400 tonnes of phosphate salts and 24,600 tonnes of nitrogen salts and 65,600 million tonnes of pathogen-free organic soil conditioner. Europe is currently strategically vulnerable to unstable third countries for supplies raw materials for the P fertiliser production (phosphate rock), which is non-renewable resource. The PhosFarm products would avoid the non-renewable sources used to make fertiliser, while providing an indigenous source of phosphate fertiliser for Europe
List of Websites:
www.phosfarm.eu
Dr. Jennifer Bilbao
jennifer.bilbao@igb.fraunhofer.de
Telefon +49 711 970-3646