CARTIF Projects
FERTICOVERY
Best available techniques to recover or recycle fertilising products from secondary raw materials
Description
The FertiCovery project aims to identify and analyze technologies for recycling fertilizers from secondary raw materials, promoting balanced nitrogen and phosphorus flows while enhancing soil health within ecological limits. It will evaluate over 25 nutrient recovery and bio-based fertilizer technologies, assessing their technical, environmental, and regulatory aspects, as well as scalability and market potential. The project will produce a multicriteria decision analysis report and datasheets for the top 10-15 technologies. By engaging stakeholders through workshops and forums, FertiCovery will promote the adoption of environmentally friendly fertilizers, reducing environmental impacts and advancing circular economy practices.
Objectives
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- To establish a longlist of (≥75) case studies of existing installations converting secondary raw materials into alternative fertilising products in Europe and outside, and to select and describe ≥25 technologies and their value chains for in depth analysis.
- To provide an overview of the technical aspects of available technologies converting secondary raw materials into fertilising products and compare their environmental impacts and resources efficiency (including energy), with conventional processes producing nitrogen- and phosphorus-based fertilisers.
- To analyse the fertilising products from each case study, e.g. their composition, their impacts on soil health and structure, water, air quality, biodiversity and climate, and their suggested use and management.
- To analyse the market and replication potential of NR and BBF technologies, based on analysis of the feedstock supply, potential to upscale production, the regulatory framework, costs, social risks and impacts.
- To provide insight in best practises of nutrient recovery and bio-based fertilizer technologies and their applications to market actors, end users and policy makers.
Actions
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- Assess the technical and environmental performance of nutrient recovery and recycling technologies. This includes the development of indicators to assess the environmental impact of the selected technologies.
- Comparison of the environmental and resource efficiency of nutrient recycling and bio-based fertiliser production technologies against conventional nitrogen and phosphorus fertiliser production processes.
- Selection and description of case studies related to existing facilities that convert secondary materials into bio-based fertiliser products.
- Organisation and facilitation of workshops to analyse and validate the final list of technologies for benchmarking.
- Contribution of their experience gained in previous projects to strengthen the implementation of activities related to nutrient recovery and recycling within the framework of the project.
Expected Results
- Development of environmental assessment indicators to analyse the impacts of the selected nutrient recovery and bio-based fertiliser technologies.
- Comparison of the environmental and resource efficiency of nutrient recovery technologies and bio-based fertilisers with conventional nitrogen and phosphorus fertiliser production processes.
- Design of a multi-criteria analysis model to rank the best available nutrient recovery technologies.
- Elaboration of the methodology for the selection of relevant case studies for nutrient recovery and bio-based fertiliser production.
- Analysis of the information obtained in workshops and consultations carried out to validate the selected technologies, in order to facilitate their practical implementation and replication in different European contexts.
R&D Line
- Recovery of nutrients of wastewater currents and second life cycle as fertilizers (struvite, digestate, biology stabilized manure)
Partners
Horizon Europe
101181936
Total Budget: 1,934,961.38€
CARTIF Budget: 227,825€
CARTIF Funding: 227,825€
Duration: 01/01/2025 – 31/12/2027
Responsible
Francisco Corona Encinas
Division of Agrifood and Processes
Networking
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