NEWTON SEA: Valorisation of agricultural wastes in the Thai rural economy for bioenergy production, nutrient recycling and water pollution control

该项目将以泰国水产养殖为案例研究，为农业废弃物在可再生能源生产、废水处理、养分回收和减少化学污染风险方面的增值建设创新能力。它将通过减少露天焚烧秸秆、玉米芯或椰子壳等生物质废物来保护环境和公众健康。这些生物质废料将成为沼气厂生产可再生能源的原料。主要项目重点是测试生物炭（生物气化过程的固体残渣）对环境污染控制和养分回收的适用性，从而在食品、能源、水和环境领域的交叉领域实现多重效益。英泰研究合作将测试由不同农业废弃物在不同热解条件下生产的生物炭作为吸附材料的适用性，以防止来自受污染的运河水的重金属、农药或石油碳氢化合物等有毒化学物质进入水产养殖池塘的食物链，在那里它们可能进行生物积累，并最终影响虾、鱼和其他水产养殖产品的消费者。我们的项目将测试一个假设，即生物炭可以用于水的生物过滤设计，以增强有毒化学物质的保留，并促进生物可降解污染物的分解，如杀虫剂或石油碳氢化合物，这些污染物存在于池塘的运河水中。我们还将测试生物炭可以直接应用于水产养殖池塘沉积物的假设，以结合沉积物污染物并防止其进入水产养殖食物链。收获后，养殖池塘本身可能成为富营养化废水的来源，这些废水如果未经处理就排入运河，将造成运河水富营养化，破坏生态系统。与其将养分排放到敏感的生态系统中，不如将其回收用于农业，取代无机肥料。因此，该项目还将测试生物炭可以结合和回收水产养殖废水中的营养物质的假设。与基于硝化-反硝化工艺的更传统的废水处理方案相反，新工艺不会将宝贵的营养物质如分子氮释放到大气中，而在大气中，氮必须通过能源密集型的哈伯-博世工艺再次固定，用于农业。相反，这些营养物质将被吸收到生物炭上，然后作为缓释肥料施用于田地，或者作为水培系统的营养源。该项目将实验性地研究这些创新概念的可行性，使用真正的泰国农业废料生产生物炭，并使用真正的运河和水产养殖池塘水和沉积物来评估拟议的处理方法。利用实测的实验数据对水沙处理设计模型进行校准和验证，并用于优化设计方案。曼谷蒙库特国王吞武里科技大学（KMUTT）和英国纽卡斯尔大学的研究人员将共同负责该项目的交付，并将交换生物炭生产和表征、化学分析、水处理设计和现场工作专业知识。来自Kasetsart大学、水质管理办公室和泰国农民的利益相关者将参加两个公共讲习班，并在一个水产养殖场进行实地工作。该项目旨在将目前粮食-能源-水-环境关系中存在的相互依赖问题转变为未来互利的相互联系，从而使农村经济更具可持续性。该项目将创造新的经济机会，并在一个具有全球意义的领域促进创新。

This project will build innovation capacity for the valorisation of agricultural waste materials in renewable energy production, wastewater treatment, nutrient recovery, and chemical pollution risk reduction, using aquacultures in Thailand as case study. It will protect the environment and public health by reducing open burning of biomass wastes such as rice straw, corn cobs or coconut shells and husks. These biomass waste materials will instead become feedstock for renewable energy production in biogasification plants. The main project focus is on testing the suitability of biochar, the solid residue of the biogasification process, for environmental pollution control and nutrient recovery, thus realizing multiple benefits at the intersection of the food, energy, water and environment sectors.The UK-Thai research collaboration will test the suitability of biochars produced from different agricultural waste materials under different pyrolysis conditions as sorbent material to prevent entry of toxic chemicals such as heavy metals or pesticides or petroleum hydrocarbons from polluted canal water into the food-chain of aquaculture ponds, where they could bioaccumulate and ultimately affect the consumers of shrimp, fish and other aquaculture products. Our project will test the hypothesis that biochars can be used in water biofiltration designs to enhance retention of toxic chemicals and facilitate the break-down of biodegradable pollutants such as pesticides or petroleum hydrocarbons present in canal water which feeds ponds. We will also test the hypothesis that biochars can be directly applied to aquaculture pond sediments to bind up sediment pollutants and prevent their uptake into the aquaculture food-chain. After harvest, the aquaculture ponds themselves can become the source of nutrient rich wastewaters which, if discharged into canals without treatment, will cause eutrophication of canal water and damage ecosystems. Instead of discharging nutrients into sensitive ecosystems, it would be better to recover them for use in agriculture, replacing inorganic fertilizers. The project will therefore also test the hypothesis that biochars can bind and recover nutrients from aquaculture wastewater. Contrary to more traditional wastewater treatment options based on the nitrification-denitrification process, the new process will not release precious nutrients as molecular nitrogen into the atmosphere, from where nitrogen has to be fixed again with the energy-intensive Haber-Bosch process for use in agriculture. Instead, the nutrients will be sorbed onto biochars which can then be applied to fields as slow-release fertilizer or used as nutrient source in hydroponic systems. The project will experimentally investigate the feasibility of these innovative concepts using real Thai agricultural waste materials for the production of biochar, and real canal and aquaculture pond waters and sediments for evaluating the proposed treatment methods. Water and sediment treatment design models will be calibrated and verified with the measured experimental data and utilized to optimize the proposed designs. Researchers from King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi (KMUTT) in Bangkok and Newcastle University in the UK will share responsibility for the delivery of this project, and will exchange biochar production & characterisation, chemical analysis, water treatment design and field work expertise. Stakeholders from Kasetsart University, the Water Quality Management Office, and Thai farmers will be engaged in two public workshops, and through the field work at an aquaculture farm. This project seeks to invert the current problematic inter-dependencies in the Food-Energy-Water-Environment Nexus into future mutually beneficial inter-linkages which will make the rural economy more sustainable. The project will create new economic opportunities, and contribute to innovation in an area of global significance.