WP 2: Use of organic waste resources as fertiliser

Our studies include a wide range of materials, which are already available to farmers as waste-based fertilisers e.g. anaerobic digestate and compost based on food waste, sewage sludge, struvite based on wastewater, fish sludge, animal manure etc. (Figure 1)

We will study both the nitrogen and phosphorus quality of the waste resources during field and pot experiments (Figure 2 and 3).

For nitrogen , we will also test the ability of incubation experiments, chemical extraction methods and spectrometric methods to predict fertilisation effects of new fertiliser products.

For phosphorus, we aim at verifying previous suggestions to predict fertilisation effects by the fraction of phosphorus being soluble in 0.5 M NaHCO₃ (Olsen P method).

Based on our results, we intent to propose prediction tools that can be used in fertilisation planning when waste resources are replacing mineral fertiliser products in agriculture.

Finally, we aim at developing guideline models for balanced nutrition application with waste-based fertiliser products.