Nutrients Management

Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology

Nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium and sulfur are essential for all living organisms, in particular for plants. Thus, these nutrients are the main components of fertilizers, and so they are indispensable for the world’s food supply. Nowadays, these nutrients are only partially recycled in agro-ecosystems, since human intervention has created a linear, dispersive system.

The key response to this lack of sustainability within agriculture and waste management is to recreate a cycle of nutrients. For this reason, the Fraunhofer IGB has established a research field to develop and implement cost-efficient strategies and technologies for the integrated resource management of nutrients.

Fields of research

  • Nutrients recovery – Towards a complete usage of agricultural plants
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  • Electrochemical process for phosphorus recovery
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  • Recovery of nutrients and organic matter from agricultural residues
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  • Drying of organic residues and cyanobacteria with superheated steam dryer
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  • Recovery of organic phosphorus for enhanced phosphate precipitation
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  • Formulation and stability studies of fertilizers
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Good to know

 

Projects

  • Fertilizer pellets for organic farming with insect repellent activity
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  • Soil improver from residues of olive oil production
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  • Stabilization of leaf fertilizer
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  • Extraction of a plant strengthener
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  • ProEcoWine: Bio protection for healthy grapes
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  • BioEcoSIM: An innovative bio-economy solution to valorise livestock manure into a range of stabilised soil improving materials
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Services

pellets of waste from the production of olive oil 
Pellets of waste from the production of olive oil.


Pellets from digestate 
Pellets from digestate.

Nutrient recovery

  • Chemical and physical characterization of raw materials and residues with regard to their nutrient content
  • Development of strategies and technologies for optimum recovery of nutrients and organic matter
  • Modelling of processes, statistical experiment design, laboratory experiments, reactor design and scale-up
  • Feasibility studies, including experimentation with our struvite plant and superheated steam dryer
  • Thermodynamic and kinetic analysis of the precipitation of different salts for the assessment of competitive reactions

Product studies

  • Stability and altering studies of liquid fertilizer according to CIPAC
  • Online particle measurement (1 µm – 2.5 mm) of nutrient crystals

Formulation and processing of fertilizers

  • Development of multicomponent fertilizers
  • Formulation and processing of multicomponent fertilizer from liquid and solid residues with repellent properties
  • Production of organic liquid fertilizer and plant strengtheners by means of extraction and suspension processes
  • Developing methods of separating, drying and pelletizing fertilizing agents

Equipment

Publications

  • Stoll, M.S., Bilbao, J. and Egner, S. (2010) Nährstoff-Recycling als Schritt zur vollständigen Nutzung von Kulturplanzen. Umweltschutztechnik, Vol. 8, p. 2
  • Stoll, M.S., et al. (2010) Manure treatment with superheated steam as part of integrated resource management. Orbit 2010 - Organic resources in the carbon economy, 
    p. 740-747
  • Bilbao, J., Stoll, M.S. and Egner, S. (2010) Closing the nutrients cycle. Water & Wastewater Treatment, Vol. 53(12), p. 20
  • Bilbao, J., et al. (2010) Characterization and anaerobic digestion of olive-mill solid wastes Orbit 2010 - Organic resources in the carbon economy, p. 724-731
  • Bilbao, J., Frank, D., Egner, S., Trösch, W. (2011) Phosphorrückgewinnung aus Abwasser durch elektrochemische Struvitfällung, Industrietage Wassertechnik, 07.-08.11.2011, Frankfurt