Nutrient recovery from waste: Identifying the path to responsible innovation

所有废物处理的决定性特征是利用能源和化学物质使排放对人类和环境都是安全的。虽然公众和环境健康必须仍然是废物处理的核心，但人们对废物流被视为资源而不是污染物的看法发生了越来越明显的转变。废物利用不足的最具挑战性的例子与营养有关，因为许多营养丰富的废物来源管理不善。现在是以新的活力迎接养分恢复挑战的时候了，因为新的解决方案正在出现，这些解决方案可以有效地通过基于生物、化学或物理变化的多种不同途径进行恢复。这些创新在回收资源所需的努力(技术、能源、化学品)、回收的材料作为营养源的功效(生物有效性、植物吸收)和对土壤-水系统的影响(生态系统服务)之间表现出不同的平衡。因此，我们认为，需要更具战略性的愿景来理解工业需求、环境需求和人类健康之间最适当的平衡。这样的洞察力将催化整个系统解决方案，既提供商业机会，又提供价值，并产生我们的社区需要的那种适应能力，以实现资源高效的未来。这一举措的总体目标是开发一个基于风险的决策分析工具，为选择适当(适合目的)的养分回收路线提供信息/S。由此产生的工具将纳入一个分层风险框架，其中将(A)描述风险和不确定性；(B)整合社会经济、人类健康、技术和环境评估；(C)反映利益攸关方偏好；(D)利用定性和定量数据；(E)可设计为结合证据权重技术、备选方案评估和不确定性表征方法。这将在生态系统服务框架的背景下确定。然后，目标是通过基于行业标准情景的一系列压力测试，调查5年、10年、20年和30年的选择。最终，该工具将基于最少后悔的原则，为负责任创新的近期和长期战略愿景提供信息。催化剂阶段的目标是基于上述总体战略目标开发研究拨款申请。最初的目标是：(1)确定决策过程的关键要素，以确定所需的专门知识、输入数据、可获得性和差距。(2)建立(调整)核心小组，并根据(1)(3)建立在后一个项目期间将与核心小组互动的相关最终用户和利益攸关方小组，在准备后一次招标的过程中确定角色和责任。已经确定了一个核心小组，提供开展这种活动所需的各种技能和专门知识，并制定了一项工作计划，以实现所要求的目标。我们倡议的一个关键特征是与从研究人员、监管机构、政策制定者和行业合作伙伴在内的各种相关利益攸关方进行接触，以确保我们的贡献在学术、监管和行业方面的好处得到适当实现。

The defining characteristic of all waste treatment is the utilisation of energy and chemicals to render discharges safe for both humans and the environment. Whilst public and environmental health must remain at the heart of waste processing, a paradigm shift in perception with waste streams viewed as a resource rather than a pollutant, is increasingly evident. The most challenging example of the under-utilisation of waste streams relates to nutrients as many nutrient rich waste sources are poorly managed. It is timely to take up the challenge of nutrient recovery with renewed vigour as new solutions are emerging that can effectively enable recovery through a number of different pathways based around either biological, chemical or physical transformations. These innovations exhibit variation in the balance between the effort required to recover the resource (technology, energy, chemicals), the recovered material's efficacy as a nutrient source (bioavailability, plant uptake) and the impact on soil-water systems (ecosystem services). Consequently, we argue that a more strategic vision is required to understand the most appropriate balance between the needs of industry, the environment and human health. Such insights will catalyse whole system solutions that both deliver commercial opportunity and value, and engender the kind of adaptive capacity that our communities need for a resource efficient future. The overall aim of this initiative is to develop a risk based decision analysis tool that informs selection of appropriate (fit for purpose) nutrient recovery route/s. The resultant tool will incorporate a tiered risk framework that will (a) characterise risks and uncertainties; (b) integrate socio-economic, human health, technological and environmental assessments; (c) reflect stakeholder preferences; (d) make use of qualitative and quantitative data; and (e) can be designed to incorporate weight of evidence techniques, options appraisal and uncertainty characterisation methods. This will be set in the context of an ecosystems services framework. The aim is then to investigate options over 5, 10, 20 and 30 year horizons through a series of stress tests based on industry standard scenarios. Ultimately this tool will inform near and long term strategic visions of responsible innovation based on the principle of least regret.The aim of the catalyst stage is to develop the research grant application based on the above overall strategic aim. The initial objectives are to: (i) Identify the key elements of the decision process so as to establish the required expertise, input data, its availability and gaps.(ii) Set up (adjust) the core team and establish roles and responsibilities in preparing the bid for the later call based on (i)(iii) Establish the associated end users and stakeholder groups that will interact with the core team during the later project.A core team has been identified that provides the diversity of skills and expertise required to undertake such an activity and a work plan has been devised to deliver the required objectives. A key feature of our initiative is engagement with the full range of associated stakeholders from researchers, regulators, policy makers and industrial partners to ensure that the academic, regulatory and industrial benefits of our contributions are properly realised.