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Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - SUSFERT (Sustainable multifunctional fertilizer â€“ combining bio-coatings, probiotics and struvite for phosphorus and iron supply)

Teaser

Summary

EU agriculture depends heavily on the use of non-renewable, resource-intensive fertilisers to meet the worldâ€™s increasing demand for food and feed. Phosphate (P) as the major fertiliser component is a critical resource that is almost entirely imported into the EU as mined rock phosphate. On top of that, a major part of the nutrients applied as fertilisers are not reaching the target crop but are leached out or a bound to soils. Iron fertilisation is currently achieved with the aid of chemical chelators. Fertilizers need coatings for product stability and controlled release, but current commercial fertilizer coatings lack biodegradability. These chemical adjuvants can accumulate in soils with increasing adversely effects. SUSFERT aims at providing new, innovative fertilisers for supplying phosphorus and iron to crops, which are based on renewable resources from industrial side streams to partly or fully replace unsustainable and resource intensive solutions. Furthermore, SUSFERTâ€™s fertilizers will incorporate microorganisms that are capable of making recalcitrant forms of phosphate readily available for plant uptake. SUSFERT will test novel organic formulations, microgranules, granules, and liquid fertilizer products in field trials, evaluate them regarding economic potential and environmental sustainability, ensure regulatory compliance and establish industry-scale production processes

Work performed

In the first reporting period, bacterial strains were applied in phosphate solubilisation experiments carried out using three different soils, different P sources and tomato and maize plants. Here, several bacteria strains allowed partial substitution of mineral P, for which dry and liquid spore formulations have successfully been produced. Furthermore, combination trials of struvite and bacterial strains showed potential for substituting mineral P and superphosphate. For the production processes and polymerization of lignosulfonates for biodegradable fertilizer coatings, efficiency and resource use was improved. Viscosities and physico-chemical properties were adjusted and are tuneable and showing good compatibility with probiotic solutions. In fermentation trials on lab scale for siderophore production it was successfully shown that sucrose can be substitute by other carbon sources, which are by-products of industrial processes. Siderophores for field trials with organic fertilizers have been produced in sufficient amounts.
Activities towards the optimization of fertilizer production involved identification of industrial and agronomical constraints and the development of protocols for studying how industrial and agronomical constraints impact on viability of bacteria that will be integrated in the envisaged SUSFERT fertilizer products.
First field trials with organic fertilisers for the effect of the siderophore in Mediterranean fruit cultures have been successfully completed and results look promising. For field trials for conducting P-fertilizer experiments in 2020 locations in Austria, France and Germany have been screened.
SUSFERT started collect data for Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and environmental sustainability analysis. Product standardization areas and an overview of the current European regulation framework concerning the main fertiliser components relevant for the SUSFERT project have been identified. In the survey of relevant standardization and regulatory frameworks, the need for a continuous monitoring of upcoming regulations and standards has been recognized.

Final results

The SUSFERT project is developing cost-effective, sustainable fertilisers, with enzymatically modified lignin-based and biodegradable coatings with anti-dust properties and for controlled release, to be used in conventional but also in organic farming. Progress beyond state of the art is mainly in three areas: (1) Current conventional, mineral fertilisers are energy and resource intensive and probiotic solutions are available only as separate products, based on single strains. SUSFERT combines probiotic and recyclable P fertiliser solutions in compound fertilisers. (2) Iron fertilisation is based on Synthetic iron chelate-based fertilisers that accumulating in soils. SUSFERT advances Siderophore based-iron fertiliser and Iron-solubilising probiotics. (3) Synthetic polymer coatings are used for controlled release of nutrients, which are problematic because they are retained in agricultural soils. SUSFERT focuses on bioboased, fully biodegradable controlled release coatings, based on lignosulfonates.
This progress beyond the state of the art will lead to the main results of SUSFERT: (1) the components for more sustainable fertilisers on the one hand - probiotics and siderophore for iron and P fertilisation, lignosulfonate-based biodegradable coatings and the feasibility of using struvite in compound fertilisers. (2) novel compound fertilisers, fitting agricultural practice and the regulatory framework, with demonstrated efficacy in field trials.
The major impacts of SUSFERT fertilisers are valorisation of waste and by-products of several industries, thus strengthening the circular economy. Replacement of conventional fertilizers will decrease the dependency on imported, mined phosphate rock in the EU by 40%.
By the end of the project, we will establish completely new value chains for fertilisers and fertiliser components. Bio-based industries, which currently account for 8% of the EUâ€™s workforce, have been projected to create one million new green jobs by 2030. SUSFERT estimates to generate more than 100 new, permanent jobs in rural areas.