At the different demonstration sites of Run4Life, Sneek, Helsingborg, Ghent and Vigo, different fertiliser products are recovered. In the overview of the project (picture on the right) can be found which products are produced within the Run4Life project. More information on the products can be found in the respective factsheets:
- Struvite
- Ammonium sulphate
- Phosphoric acid
- Ammonium nitrate
- NPK tailor-made pellets
- Solid NPK fertiliser (in development)
- Liquid NPK fertiliser (in development)
End-user perspective is key
Run4Life aims to produce marketable and safe fertilisers from wastewater. Therefore, WP4 is dedicated to link the recovered nutrients in Run4Life with its potential market uptake possibilities as hygienically safe fertilisers by looking at the fertiliser end-user perspective. The team working on WP4 consists of people from SLU, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, and two fertiliser related companies: ForFarmers for professional growers and ASB Greenworld for hobby gardeners. Within WP4, the quality of the produced fertilisers is validated according to several Key Performance Indicators (KPI) like; composition, nutrient and heavy metal content, pharmaceutical residues and other organic micro pollutants. For further evaluation of the fertilisers and reclaimed water several pot and field trials are performed over different seasons at different sites in combination with standardised toxicity tests, seed germination tests and root elongation toxicity tests.
Pot and field tests
In the Netherlands on behalf of 4Farmer, field trials are performed over two years in different seasons and at different sites. Because the amount of fertilizer was not sufficient within Run4Life (the demonstration sites were in construction) a product similar to the fertilizer that would be produced in the project was used. In the video below the setup of the field trails is described in more detail. Pot tests have been replicated three times, twice at SLU, Sweden, and the other one at Agricultural Experimental Station of Baixo Miño, Spain.
In the field trial ray grass and fodder maize have been cultivated whereas in the pot experiments ray grass and Sweet basil have been cultivated. In both field and pot tests fertiliser products from Run4Life demosites have been applied at different rates and on different types of soils, to assess their performance and optimal application rates.
In the first pot test NPK tailor-made pellets performed well and was the most promising product for field scale validation and was thus also tested in the field by ForFarmers in comparison with mineral fertiliser. In the pot experiments a wider range of products were tested: ammonium nitrate, struvite, irrigation water and sludge from Vigo (Spain), sludge and HTAD effluent from Sneek (The Netherlands) and pellets from Helsingborg (Sweden). Some of these products were proxy products as there were not yet enough fertilizers produced in the project. The tests are now taking place, we are looking forward the results and will keep you informed.