EBP addresses environmental problems in municipal biowaste (MBW) management, agriculture and chemical industry by proving production and use of new biobased products (BPs) obtained from MBW.
MBW EU production is 100 Mt/yr, treated in equal parts by controlled fermentation yielding 30 Mt/yr compost and 13 Mt/yr anaerobic digestate, landfill releasing 11000 Mm3/yr CO2 and 14000 Mm3/yr CH4, incineration producing 2-4 kt/yr dust and 154 kt/yr other GHG and toxic organics.
Common agriculture practice is to boost plant production with fertilizer dose higher than taken adsorbed by soil and plant. Thus, noxious fertilizers’ components accumulate in soil, reach the food chain, leach through soil into ground water, and ultimately affect human and animal health. Mineral and organic fertilizers are used.
EU consumption of mineral fertilizers is 16 Mt/yr. From 70 to 250 kg/ha nitrates leaching may occur depending on fertilizer dose, soil, and plant type. Based on average 51 kg/ha applied surplus and total 175 Mha cultivated area, 9 kt/yr nitrate leach through soil and water. To improve balance between fertilizers dose and crop requirement, max EU ruled dose is 150-350 kg/ha.
Major organic fertilizers are composts of biowastes from urban, animal, or agriculture source, manure, peat and leonardite hydrolysates. Composts are commonly applied to soil at 20-30 t/ha.yr.
High doses to obtain desired effects are due to compost insolubility causing slow nutrients’ uptake by plants. This causes leaching of excess major and trace metal components through soil and water. Similarly, manure is applied at 70 t/ha dose. In addition to leaching, it causes GHG emission due to fermentation in soil. For example, typical aerial ammonia concentration in a pig farm is 5–35 ppm, while suggested threshold value is 25 ppm level. Greater aerial ammonia level harm both animal and human health. Peat and leonardite hydrolysates belong to a niche market. They contain soluble organic and mineral matter. EU consumption of organo-mineral fertilizers is 240 kt/yr. They come from fossil source. Based on average 40 % C content, their use causes 355 kt/yr CO2 emission from fossil C and depletion of fossil sources. Except for MBW, common problem of all fertilizers is that their sources are found in restricted sites, not available worldwide. This poses the problem of product supply and cost.
Important agriculture issue is also plant disease. It causes 10-50 %/yr food production loss. Crop protection relies on pesticides use, which may cause hormonal disruption in human. They increase food cost and environmental problems. Common problem of all fertilizers is the need to use them together with pesticides. It might be solved by developing ecofriendly plant biostimulants effective at low applied doses on the plant metabolism to induce plant resistance to pathogens and provide high crop productivity at the same time. Unito TRL 3-5 work proves that BPs have both properties. No other known products have such performance.
The EU chemical industry produces 330 Mt/yr synthetic organic chemicals from fossil sources to cover consumers’ need for plastics and other finished products. Major concern is depletion of fossil source as feedstock to produce fuels and chemicals and the increasing GHG emissions.
Project objectives are:
(I) Pilot demonstration of environmental, economic and social benefits of BPs in the sectors of MBW management and agriculture, and 4 EU countries EBP partners, taken as case studies, by:
(1) replicating BPs production process in real operational conditions using local MBW as feedstock;
(2) assessing BPs quality and production cost as function of local available MBW;
(3) validating BPs performance as fertilizers, plant biostimulants and anti-pathogen agents depending local cultivation;
(4) confirming BPs compliance with EU regulation for agriculture and environmental policy.
(5) mimicking BPs industrializa