NTPlus - developing the circular economy in agriculture

NTPlus——发展农业循环经济

• 批准号: 91125
• 金额: $ 9.62万
• 依托单位: AGUA DB LTD
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Collaborative R&D
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2021 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=91125
• 关键词: NTPlus; developing; circular; economy; agriculture

This project demonstrates the recovery of nutrients from water, decreasing agriculture's dependence on the Haber process for nitrogen fertilisers and the Mannheim process for sulphate fertilisers, helping agriculture move towards net zero. This has the potential to revolutionise nitrate removal, which is carried out where nitrate levels are above safe levels. Nitrate pollution of ground water occurs in regions of intensive agriculture and treatment uses large quantities of salt, producing a brine nitrate waste stream which often has to be tankered to a large waste water treatment works. The salt regenerates the ion exchange resin used to remove nitrate, but the process is typically ~10% efficient. This is an expensive process: in the UK, the structure of the water industry enables the capital and operational costs of plants to be spread over a large customer base, but, in other parts of the world, the water industry is fragmented, prohibiting the wider use of nitrate removal. For example, in the Central Valley in California, over 200 small community water systems have consistently exceeded the maximum nitrate level for over a decade, without a single treatment system being installed.Most nitrate treatment sites have adjacent farmland - and the farmer applies potash fertiliser, potassium chloride, out of season so the chloride is washed away before the crops are planted. This project will demonstrate regeneration of the ion exchange resin at close to 100% efficiency, producing low-chloride fertigation products containing potassium, sulphate, nitrate, calcium and magnesium, as well as natural fulvic acids (scavenged by the ion exchange system) which improve soil condition and are involved in the transportation of trace minerals in soils. These could be used by a nearby farm in smart (variable rate fertilisation) irrigation, and could become a new product for existing fertiliser manufacturers, enabling them to ship solid complementary additions and make up the liquid products on the farm.By encouraging the uptake of smart irrigation in the UK, crop yield gains of 10% would be regularly achieved, along with more efficient use of both fertilisers and water. Irrigation use is increasing in the UK to ensure increased resilience to climate change, particularly where irrigation water storage is used, facilitating winter abstraction and the potential to use such facilities for flood mitigation. The amount of nitrate already present in the Vadose layer is substantial (BGS estimate 600 - 1,800M te) and is seen as a 'timebomb' for water sources.This project turns this problem into a sustainable solution. The products produced have a greater value than the raw material inputs, which enables the potential for exponential growth. Globally, 90 M te of potash is used annually in agriculture. If 10% of this were used to recover nutrients from water, this would reduce chloride inputs to soil and fresh water systems by over 20 M te and reduce CO2 emissions by over 30 M te, with nearly 1,000 M te of CO2 captured in additional crop production.

该项目展示了从水中回收营养物质，减少农业对哈伯氮肥工艺和曼海姆硫酸盐肥料工艺的依赖，帮助农业走向净零。这有可能彻底改变硝酸盐去除，这是在硝酸盐水平高于安全水平的情况下进行的。地下水的硝酸盐污染发生在集约化农业地区，处理使用大量的盐，产生盐水硝酸盐废物流，通常必须将其运输到大型废水处理厂。盐使用于去除硝酸盐的离子交换树脂再生，但该过程的效率通常约为10%。这是一个昂贵的过程：在英国，水工业的结构使得工厂的资本和运营成本能够分散在一个庞大的客户群中，但是在世界其他地方，水工业是分散的，从而禁止更广泛地使用硝酸盐去除。例如，在加州的中央谷，超过200个小型社区供水系统的硝酸盐含量在十多年中一直超过最高水平，而没有安装一个处理系统。大多数硝酸盐处理点都与农田相邻--农民在反季节施用钾肥氯化钾，这样氯化物就在作物种植前被冲走了。该项目将展示离子交换树脂的再生效率接近100%，生产含有钾、硫酸盐、硝酸盐、钙和镁的低氯化物灌溉施肥产品，以及天然富里酸（由离子交换系统清除），这些产品可改善土壤状况，并参与土壤中微量矿物质的运输。这些可以被附近的农场用于智能（可变施肥）灌溉，也可以成为现有肥料制造商的新产品，使他们能够运送固体补充添加剂，并在农场上补充液体产品。通过鼓励英国采用智能灌溉，作物产量将定期提高10%，同时沿着更有效地利用肥料和水。在英国，灌溉的使用正在增加，以确保提高对气候变化的适应能力，特别是在使用灌溉水储存的地方，促进冬季抽水以及使用这些设施减轻洪水的潜力。包气层中已经存在大量的硝酸盐（BGS估计为600 - 1，800 Mte），被视为水源的“定时炸弹”。该项目将这个问题转化为可持续的解决方案。生产的产品比原材料投入具有更大的价值，这使得指数增长的潜力成为可能。在全球范围内，每年有9000万吨钾肥用于农业。如果其中的10%用于从水中回收养分，这将减少20多万吨的氯化物输入到土壤和淡水系统，并减少30多万吨的二氧化碳排放量，在额外的作物生产中捕获近1,000吨的二氧化碳。