4th Conference of the European projects Nutri2cycle and Circular Agronomics
The European Horizon 2020 projects Nutri2cycle and Circular Agronomics are coming to their conclusion, and we can now see their published outcomes
Some of the most outstanding results were presented on 17 November at the 4th Conference of the European projects Nutri2cycle and Circular Agronomics, which took place in Vic (Catalonia). The conference was attended by five speakers from IRTA. Here follows a more detailed explanation of what they said during the conference:
Circular Agronomics, towards a smarter and more circular agriculture
The Circular Agronomics project’s main objective is to increase the recovery and recycling of nutrients along the agri-food chain, in order to reduce the environmental impact of production and help the transition to a circular economy. For example, it proposes actions to reduce and reincorporate into the production system residual phosphorus and nitrogen, mainly from fertilisation and slurry, or to increase soil carbon sequestration. If you want to know more, don’t just stay on the surface and take a closer look at the project.
The first part of the conference focused on the results of this project, and on the activities related to the application of the fertiliser products obtained in different extensive crops and rotations, as well as in horticultural crops. Gonçalo Nascimento and Elena González, researchers of the Sustainable Field Crops programme, spoke respectively about the use of pig manure for sustainable agricultural production, and about the optimisation of ryegrass fertilisation with mash from cows fed with a precision system.
Carme Biel, from the Sustainable Plant Protection programme, then presented an example of how the use of fertilisers derived from slurry digestate could be efficiently applied in horticulture.
Nutri2cycle, closing the nutrient loops
In the second block of the day, corresponding to the Nutri2cycle project, the environmental quantification of nutrient recovery processes was addressed by Marta Ruiz, from the Sustainability in Biosystems programme. August Bonmatí, from the same programme, presented the results of the monitoring of the ammonia recovery plant, a case study of the Ammoneva project, and the obtaining of fertiliser by-products.
The Nutri2cycle project aims to identify the most efficient farming systems and demonstrate the environmental benefits of closed nutrient loops, that is, circular agro-economy systems that can reuse nutrients at each step of the food chain. All this with case examples and demonstrations in pilot installations. You can find more information about the project on the Nutri2Cycle website.
Finally, those attending the conference were able to visit the Ammoneva nutrient recovery pilot plant, one of the case studies of the Nutri2Cycle project, located in the municipality of Navàs (Barcelona), in the farm UPB Genetic World S.L. You can see and learn more about it in this video.
Allà, Roberto Estéfano Lagarrigue va explicar el funcionament d’aquesta planta d’evaporació al buit a baixa temperatura dedicada a la recuperació d’amoni dels purins porcins. També es va presenta el sistema BEDA per part de Sergi Melero, que combinat amb l’Ammoneva, permet recuperar un concentrat de nutrients i aigua a partir de purins per a la seva reutilització, eliminant així la necessitat de terres de cultiu per a la seva aplicació.
There, Roberto Estéfano Lagarrigue explained the operation of this low temperature vacuum evaporation plant, dedicated to the recovery of ammonium from pig slurry. Sergi Melero also presented the BEDA system, which, combined with Ammoneva, makes it possible to recover a concentrate of nutrients and water from slurry for reuse, thus eliminating the need for arable land for its application.
