Don’t miss out! Nutrient recovery from wastewater to produce fertilizers for agriculture

30 November | 10-12.30h | Online

Nutrient recovery from wastewater to produce fertilizers for agriculture

The LIFE ENRICH project, which started in September 2017 and will come to an end this month, will organize the online event Nutrient recovery from wastewater to produce fertilizers for agriculture on November 30th, from 10h to 12.30h (CET). This encounter will bring together representatives of public administrations, industries, universities, farmers, fertilizer companies and WWTP operators from different countries to discuss key challenges and solutions related to nutrient recovery from wastewater.

The encounter, organized by Cetaqua, Water Technology Centre, aims to provide a space for presenting the LIFE ENRICH project’s results. LIFE ENRICH has demonstrated a technically, environmentally and economically feasible business model for nutrient recovery from wastewater and their use as fertilizers for agriculture, and this business model is ready to be replicated in other sites. Besides, this event will bring together key actors to discuss the most relevant challenges and solutions related to nutrient recovery from wastewater and its valorization and will facilitate a dialogue among a diverse range of actors from academia, public administration, industry and farmers community on the multiple aspects of the use of struvite and ammonium salts as fertilizers for agriculture. 

The legislation will also be a crucial topic of the event. Current legislation only addresses the use of struvite as fertilizer for agriculture. In this regard, future legislation should aim to address the use of ammonium salts as fertilizers for agriculture as well, as they were proved  equally safe within the LIFE ENRICH project’s. Greenhouse and field trials showed similar crop production for struvite, ammonium salts and sludge compared to control tests with conventional fertilization, highlithing the technical addecuacy of the LIFE ENRICH fertilizers.

The themes of the event include the following:

  • Nutrient recovery from wastewater (LIFE ENRICH technology).
  • Economic & technical feasibility of the use of struvite and ammonium salts as fertilizers for agriculture (LIFE ENRICH business model).
  • Integration of nutrient recovery wastewater in the fertilizers value chain from an economic and environmental perspective.
  • NewEU Fertilizing Products Regulation (FPR) 2019/1009 on the use of struvite and other phosphate  salts as fertilizers.
  • Other potential applications of recovered nutrients from WWTP.