In the face of climate change and eutrophication of water bodies, the Baltic Sea region’ society faces the challenge of recovering and obtaining nutrients. The Baltic Sea coastal zone is reach in biomass resources, such as algae, macrophytes and mussel shells, which could be used in agriculture for food production in sustainable way. It is in light of recent years rising interest in “nutrient circularity”, “closing the nutrient loop” and “circular nutrient solutions”. Circular nutrient solutions will prevent fertilizing nutrients from being dissipated in the environment and becoming pollutants. The idea of nutrients’ cycling includes the use of biomass as raw material for fertilizer and further food production. Fertilizer technologies have increasingly used renewable resources, most manufactured products are still based on mineral deposits. The use efficiency of synthetic fertilizers is often only 50% with N and P losses from crop systems polluting the biosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere. To reduce dependency on inorganic fertilizer use, organic fertilizers such as animal manure, biosolids, digestate, biochar and crop residues are used as alternatives. These complex materials have caused pollution/ecological risks associated with veterinary antibiotics, heavy metals such as (Cu and Zn) and other contaminants such as arsenic. Nutrient losses from agricultural land to freshwater and marine environments contribute to eutrophication and leads to the growth of algae. The potential benefits of recycling the biomass for agricultural land and soil quality, and crop nutrition in a “cycling manner” could be very good contribution for green and blue technologies as well as circular initiatives in the South Baltic region.
Details
- Project's acronym:
- ECONUT
- Financial Program Name:
- European Territorial Cooperation 2021-2027
- Organization:
- Wspólny Sekretariat Techniczny Programu Południowy Bałtyk
- Realisation period:
- unknown - unknown
- Research team leader:
- dr inż. Andrzej Rogala
- Realised in:
- Department of Process Engineering and Chemical Technology
- External institutions
participating in project: -
- Klaipeda University (Lithuania)
- University of Rostock (Germany)
- Lithuanian Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry (Lithuania)
- University of Southern Denmark (Denmark)
- Sustainable Development Skåne (Sweden)
- Request type:
- European Founds
- Domestic:
- Domestic project
- Verified by:
- Gdańsk University of Technology
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