Periodic Reporting for period 2 - FertiCycle (New bio-based fertilisers from organic waste upcycling)
Berichtszeitraum: 2022-01-01 bis 2023-12-31
The world food supply needs to increase by 70 % to feed the 9 billion global population by 2050, increasing pressure on agriculture and necessitating further intensification. Currently, EU is heavily import dependent for more than 90% of nonrenewable phosphorus and synthetic nitrogen fertilisers, at large economic cost and with negative environmental impacts from fertiliser production and use. Furthermore, phosphate has been identified as a critical raw material for the EU.
We therefore need a new European effort to address ‘The Nutrient Nexus’, where reduced nutrient losses and improved nutrient use efficiency across all sectors simultaneously provide the foundation for a greener and more circular economy to produce more food and energy while reducing environmental pollution. European farmers and fertiliser industry thus urgently need techniques for increasing substitution of synthetic with waste-derived nutrients formulated into high-quality, bio-based fertilisers.
The objective of FertiCycle was to train 15 early stage researchers (ESR) to develop new processes for production of bio-based fertilisers, recycling wasted resources and to estimate the market potential and sustainability challenges of their production and use. The training program aimed to enable the ESR to generate, integrate and apply inter-disciplinary knowledge for developing new technical solutions for bio-based fertiliser production, management and marketing, and successfully gave them competences for inter-sectoral work and international collaboration in industry and academia.
We therefore need a new European effort to address ‘The Nutrient Nexus’, where reduced nutrient losses and improved nutrient use efficiency across all sectors simultaneously provide the foundation for a greener and more circular economy to produce more food and energy while reducing environmental pollution. European farmers and fertiliser industry thus urgently need techniques for increasing substitution of synthetic with waste-derived nutrients formulated into high-quality, bio-based fertilisers.
The objective of FertiCycle was to train 15 early stage researchers (ESR) to develop new processes for production of bio-based fertilisers, recycling wasted resources and to estimate the market potential and sustainability challenges of their production and use. The training program aimed to enable the ESR to generate, integrate and apply inter-disciplinary knowledge for developing new technical solutions for bio-based fertiliser production, management and marketing, and successfully gave them competences for inter-sectoral work and international collaboration in industry and academia.
The FertiCycle ITN began in February 2020. Over the following 9 months project leaders planned a general timeline of events, established a management structure, and recruited 15 Early Stage Researchers (ESRs). ESRs enrolled during the fall of 2020 and the team of researchers began to take shape and form as a collaborative unit. ESRs were introduced to the programs components, individual research projects, coursework, and networking opportunities. Over the next 3 years, ESRs advanced their individual project research, while attending courses and building their networks. Part of the program included secondment visits from ESRs to host institutions and partner organisations in the network to collaborate and share research.
Dissemination and outreach was a major component of the project, and researchers were encouraged to build their networks and expand the reach of their research. To accomplish this, ESRs attended and presented at conferences and workshops, published scientific articles, distributed information through social media, conducted workshops at high schools and universities, and participated in industry trade fairs and exhibitions. In total, the FertiCycle ESRs have submitted 33 research papers and plan to submit another 27, so in total 60 papers to reputable scientific journals. They have also contributed to popular journal articles, attended over 20 national/ international conferences (with 60 oral or poster presentations), attended 15 industry trade fairs, and made 24 presentations on their research and the Marie S. Curie program to high schools, undergraduates, master’s degree and postgraduate students.
As a cohort, the ESRs have also jointly made two major conference manifestations; with special sessions at ManuREsource-2022 and second at RAMIRAN-2023. The FertiCycle project and its research and development activities has also been widely communicated in public media and radio, e.g. through a range of popular European and national industry magazines and interview for public radio. Finally the FertiCycle website (www.ferticycle.ku.dk) newsletters (11 in total, with +50 articles) and SoMe accounts on LinkedIn and X have served as important communication channels for the network.
Dissemination and outreach was a major component of the project, and researchers were encouraged to build their networks and expand the reach of their research. To accomplish this, ESRs attended and presented at conferences and workshops, published scientific articles, distributed information through social media, conducted workshops at high schools and universities, and participated in industry trade fairs and exhibitions. In total, the FertiCycle ESRs have submitted 33 research papers and plan to submit another 27, so in total 60 papers to reputable scientific journals. They have also contributed to popular journal articles, attended over 20 national/ international conferences (with 60 oral or poster presentations), attended 15 industry trade fairs, and made 24 presentations on their research and the Marie S. Curie program to high schools, undergraduates, master’s degree and postgraduate students.
As a cohort, the ESRs have also jointly made two major conference manifestations; with special sessions at ManuREsource-2022 and second at RAMIRAN-2023. The FertiCycle project and its research and development activities has also been widely communicated in public media and radio, e.g. through a range of popular European and national industry magazines and interview for public radio. Finally the FertiCycle website (www.ferticycle.ku.dk) newsletters (11 in total, with +50 articles) and SoMe accounts on LinkedIn and X have served as important communication channels for the network.
The FertiCycle research and training network has provided a unique opportunity for the ESRs to acquire the scientific knowledge and technical skills needed to develop new treatment and formulation technologies for the sustainable upcycling of organic waste resources into high-quality bio-based fertilisers required in a circular economy. Such competences are sought after by many sectors of society, both in academia, industry and public service. Additionally, all ESRs have achieved important generic skills – project management, research communication and outreach, intellectual property rights and patenting, academic writing and research proposal development – both through training, but also more importantly through own experiences in practice. Finally, the involvement of the smaller and larger industry partner organisations has provided amble opportunities for the ESR to engage with the private sector to get experience on modes of work and cross-disciplinary collaboration during their internships/secondments, but also during consortium and bilateral meetings.
The FertiCycle research vision has been based on the cradle-to-cradle concept that all nutrient-containing products can be recycled in a waste-free and cyclic system, where their entire lifecycle is considered and dealt with. Potentially, this should be able to i) limit negative impacts on soil, air and water quality ii) substitute fossil resources depletion and energy consumption from synthetic fertiliser production and iii) establish synergy with bioenergy production from waste. Research, development and innovation in the FertiCycle project have focused on more efficient processes for this and on creating multiple products, including novel, high-quality, bio-based fertilisers. We have been successful in establishing a creative and collaborative ESR network for in-depth science on these topics, and the research of the individual ESRs has produced a lot of experimental and empirical data on bio-based fertiliser production, application, utilisation, emissions and markets. Although no patents have been filed yet, several of our private sector partners have expressed commercial interest in the ESR research results with potential for further development of high-quality bio-based fertilisers. The project has in this way provided strong opportunities for establishing and developing new collaborations between universities and industry.
The FertiCycle network has also focused on ensuring policy impact of our findings. The FertiCycle PI, Lars Stoumann Jensen (UCPH), was invited to give a presentation to the EU Committee on Agricultural and Rural Development for a public hearing in November 2022 on ‘Reducing impacts of fertilisers from production to end-use, increasing circularity in agriculture’, organized to address the ongoing crisis of fertiliser supply in Europe resulting from the war in Ukraine. Furthermore, in order to communicate the FertiCycle ESR research findings to policy makers, industry, farmers and other end-users, the FertiCycle consortium co-organised the European Sustainable Nutrient Initiative Conference (ESNI) in Brussels Sept 2023 with partners from the Biorefine Cluster Europe network; here several of the ESRs participated with presentations and had opportunity for lots of stakeholder interaction and policy impact.
The FertiCycle research vision has been based on the cradle-to-cradle concept that all nutrient-containing products can be recycled in a waste-free and cyclic system, where their entire lifecycle is considered and dealt with. Potentially, this should be able to i) limit negative impacts on soil, air and water quality ii) substitute fossil resources depletion and energy consumption from synthetic fertiliser production and iii) establish synergy with bioenergy production from waste. Research, development and innovation in the FertiCycle project have focused on more efficient processes for this and on creating multiple products, including novel, high-quality, bio-based fertilisers. We have been successful in establishing a creative and collaborative ESR network for in-depth science on these topics, and the research of the individual ESRs has produced a lot of experimental and empirical data on bio-based fertiliser production, application, utilisation, emissions and markets. Although no patents have been filed yet, several of our private sector partners have expressed commercial interest in the ESR research results with potential for further development of high-quality bio-based fertilisers. The project has in this way provided strong opportunities for establishing and developing new collaborations between universities and industry.
The FertiCycle network has also focused on ensuring policy impact of our findings. The FertiCycle PI, Lars Stoumann Jensen (UCPH), was invited to give a presentation to the EU Committee on Agricultural and Rural Development for a public hearing in November 2022 on ‘Reducing impacts of fertilisers from production to end-use, increasing circularity in agriculture’, organized to address the ongoing crisis of fertiliser supply in Europe resulting from the war in Ukraine. Furthermore, in order to communicate the FertiCycle ESR research findings to policy makers, industry, farmers and other end-users, the FertiCycle consortium co-organised the European Sustainable Nutrient Initiative Conference (ESNI) in Brussels Sept 2023 with partners from the Biorefine Cluster Europe network; here several of the ESRs participated with presentations and had opportunity for lots of stakeholder interaction and policy impact.