Fertilisers play an important role as nutrient suppliers. In case of phosphorus, the supply heavily depends on fossil mineral resources. European fertiliser industry is strongly dependent on imports of raw materials, making them vulnerable to supply and pricing policies.
Main objective of the joint project NEWFERT, funded by Bio-based Industries Joint Undertaking in the EU Horizon 2020 programme, is to build up a breakthrough in fertiliser production. The project will focus on a viable and cost-effective industrial nutrient recycling scheme, developing new technologies aiming to increase nutrient recovery and recycling ratios. Projected benefits also include substantial energy savings and CO2 emissions reduction. NEWFERT aims to decrease raw material dependency, to prevent resource depletion and to reduce the environmental impact increasing significantly the fertiliser industry’s sustainability. The work organisation has been designed to link and pursue a successful industrial integration supported by a solid life-cycle cost analysis. The NEWFERT consortium is led by the Spanish company FERTIBERIA and composed by a balanced set of 6 partners from 4 member states, covering nutrient recovery from biobased waste. KWB is responsible for evaluating the whole process chain ranging from recovery to the recycling as commercial fertiliser product.
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