Periodic Reporting for period 2 - FERTIMANURE (Innovative nutrient recovery from secondary sources – Production of high-added value FERTIlisers from animal MANURE) Reporting period: 2021-07-01 to 2022-12-31 Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project Total farm livestock population in Europe excrete around 1400 Mt of manure annually. More than 90 % of the manure produced by livestock farms in the EU is used for land fertilisation. However, this process is inefficient. The main objective of FERTIMANURE is to develop, test and validate advanced Nutrient Management Strategies to efficiently recover mineral nutrients and other products with agronomic value from manure, to finally obtain reliable and safe fertilisers that can compete in the EU fertilizers market. FERTIMANURE focuses on “How to improve the agronomic use of recycled nutrients from livestock manure” to reconnect nutrient flows between plant and livestock production.Nutrient recycling relies not only in the technologies for producing bio-based fertilisers, but also in a better understanding and managing nutrients at the farm. The ambition of FERTIMANURE is to cover both technological approach for nutrient recovery and nutrient management. To this end, the technological approach will be covered by the implementation of 5 innovative & integrated nutrient recovery on-farm experimental pilots in the most relevant European countries in terms of livestock production (Spain, France, Germany, Belgium, The Netherlands), whereas the nutrient management will be addressed through 3 different strategies adapted to mixed and specialised farming systems: (Strategy #1) On-farm production and use of Bio-Based Fertilisers (BBF), (Strategy #2) On-farm BBF production and Centralised Tailor-Made Fertilisers (TMF) production and (Strategy #3) On-farm TMF production and use.A total of 31 marketable end-products (11 BBF & 20 TMF) will be obtained. The agronomic & environmental performance and their potential to replace conventional fertilisers will be assessed.Ultimately, FERTIMANURE seeks to provide an innovative circular economy model to favour rural development in agricultural sector by creating real synergies and links within farmers and other industrial activities. Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far The work carried out during months 1-18 includes the establishment of the baseline information and working framework for the societal challenge which the project addresses. WP1 has obtained key baseline data in terms of animal densities and nutrient generation in the different participating countries and regions, characterised the current nutrient imbalances across Europe stemming from livestock manure, and has executed an analysis of the policy and legislation framework surrounding organic fertilisers (bio-based fertilisers). The breadth of this analysis has been important for establishing the abundance, volume, and potential value of bio-based fertilizers and tailor-made fertilizers which are produced in the project (WP3). Additionally, a market landscape analysis including a questionnaire on end-users preferences has provided necessary information for WP6, which will elaborate the new business models and business plans proposed by FERTIMANURE to promote competitive new fertilising products produced in the EU market.Other key work within this reporting period is the design and construction of the 5 FERTIMANURE on-farm pilots (WP2), as well as the pilot on on-farm TMF production (WP3). Currently, all FERTIMANURE pilots are installed and operating at the corresponding farms. The pilots are a key element in the project work plan, since they will recover the nutrients to produce the foreseen bio-based fertilisers that will be later used to produce tailor-made fertilisers (WP3), which are later tested to demonstrate their competitiveness in the market (WP4, WP6). Until now, a total of 19 bio-based fertilisers have been produced and characterised, 8 more than the number initially foreseen in the DoA. In that sense, having reached the end of this first reporting period with all the pilots ready and 19 BBFs produced is a notable step forward in the FERTIMANURE work plan.Regarding communication and dissemination, WP7 created the basis for project branding, the project website, a promotional video that has been translated to all the languages of the consortium, and also the project Newsletter which is emitted every 6 months. Most of the partners have participated in online conferences and have published in different media. Moreover, Biorefine Cluster Europe and FERTIMANURE have strengthened ties to create a new community group, called Closing Nutrient Cycles and is expecting to start its activity by the end of 2021. Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far) FERTIMANURE aims to develop sustainable innovative manure management processing technologies to produce valuable fertilising products achieving the following objectives:● Agronomic objectives: achieve high NUE and an effective use of organic matter;● Environmental objectives: low emissions;● Social/societal objectives: safety, human health and no odour generation.To reach these objectives, the project proposes three different approaches to efficiently use the nutrients contained in raw manure: Strategy #1 focuses on using novel technologies to recover and use BBFs directly on-farm. Strategy #2 is based on TMF centralised production (in chemical industries) from on-farm recovered nutrients. Finally, Strategy #3 focuses directly in on-farm production and use of TMF obtained directly from raw manure. These approaches will create bi-directional cross-sector interconnections in bio-based economy between the agricultural sector and the chemical industry.So far, the project has already stablished the basis for the 3 different nutrient management strategies foreseen in FERTIMANURE Circular Economy strategy:● Strategy #1: The 5 on-farm pilots aiming to demonstrate novel technologies to recover BBF from animal manure are already constructed and set up. At this point, 19 BBFs has already been obtained, 8 more than the ones initially foreseen.● Strategy #2: The formulation of the appropriatte TMF is key for the implementation of Strategy #2. During this period, an Excel tool has been developed in order to calculate the optimal combination of fertilisers to be used to meet with the legal restrictions and/or crop recommendations. This tool is aiming to be an easy tool to be used by farmers to efficiently calculate the optimal amounts of BBFs and mineral fertilisers to properly formulate a specific TMF depending on the soil type and the targeted crop, and it will be further developed during the following months, when more data from the pilots will be available. ● Strategy #3: The pilot for on-farm TMF production is already in operation and first results have been obtained.To date, the project has engaged a range of stakeholders and citizen scientists, and has assessed the requirements for monitoring the end-users preferences, developed in the Questionnaire shared during the first 18 months. This questionnaire was prepared in 9 different languages to understand the market potential of the FERTIMANURE end-products (BBFs and TMFs) which is relevant for market landscape analysis and detecting the issues that could be of importance for the future development of the sector. FERTIMANURE logo
