Blog from the Environmental Engineering Research Group at SLU
My name is Abdullah Al-Saadi. I am originally from Iraq and I live in Finland. In Iraq, I have completed my bachelor degree in Chemical engineering. In Finland, I’m studying a Bachelor degree in Environmental engineering at the final stage. In SLU, I am doing my internship and Bachelor’s thesis project in urine treatment, which will focus on the fate of organic compounds in urine. I will work at SLU for the next 5 months.
My name is Ali Mehaidli. Prior to my arrival here, I was living in Finland, studying Environmental Engineering at Tampere University of Applied Sciences. At SLU, I will be working with the urine treatment research group. My focus will be on the fate and stability of nitrogen during urine dehydration treatment. My internship and thesis project began in January, and I will be here till early June.
We have exciting news! The Swedish Research Council FORMAS has granted funding for our project called RECAPTURE: Circular Economy Certification and Production of Urine Fertiliser. RECAPTURE is a collaboration between #SLU, #Sanitation360, #Ecoloop and #RISE, and has 3 short-term goals: 1) optimization of fertiliser formation to work with conventional farming equipment; 2) review the applicability of SPCR178 certification for urine and other emerging products; 3) conceptual idea of a tag-on to fertiliser certifications to include environmental aspects.
My name is Jade Borel and I come from France, Grenoble. I am in the third year of environmental engineering school in Rennes. At SLU, I am part of the urine drying research team. I will work with urease enzyme and analyse how urine salts affect enzymatic activity. My intership started early November and I will be staying until the end of January.
My name is Liudmila Nazarova and I am coming from Russia, Saint-Petersburg. I am a fourth-year Environmental Engineering student at Tampere University of Applied Science (Finland). I am part of the Kretsloppsteknik research team at SLU. I am working on the fate and chemical degradation of biodegradable polymers in wastewater at different process conditions. I will be working in the group from September until the end of November.
We’re happy to share that the #Bolivia project on #urinedrying that we started in 2018 will continue for another four years through new funding from VetenskapsrĂ„det / Swedish Research Council. In the project, we will be developing novel chemical pellets that can capture all the nutrients in urine, while removing organics pollutants and malodour-causing substances. The pellets will be evaluated against real-life aspects and natural contaminants before they are field-tested in urban settings in Bolivia. Project partners in Boliva include Luis Fernando Perez Mercado and Mercedes Iriarte from Centro de Aguas y Saneamiento Ambiental at the University of San Simon in Cochabamba.
Link: https://www.slu.se/en/ew-news/2022/11/fundings-from-vr/
A consortium of 32 partner organisations from 12 European countries and Switzerland including SLU and Sanitation360 have justed signed the Grant Agreement for a four-year Horizon Europe Project aiming to âclose the gap between fork and farm for circular nutrient flowsâ short P2GreeN. From our group in Sweden, Jenna Senecal, Prithvi Simha, Jennifer McConville, and Björn VinnerĂ„s will participate in the project. The project will start on the first of December 2022, and is coordinated by agrathaer GmbH and Leibniz Institute of Vegetable and Ornamental Crops (IGZ) e.V.
P2GreeNâs overall objective is to foster a circular material flow system between urban and rural areas thereby restoring the coupling of the water-agri-food system following the 3R principle âReduce, Reuse, Recoverâ. To achieve this, P2GreeN will develop new solutions for the circular economy to halt and eliminate nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) pollution by connecting blue urban with green rural infrastructure, focussing on circular nutrient flows of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P), two important plant nutrients and at the same time water polluters. This objective will be achieved through the implementation and exploration of innovative N and P recovery solutions for the utilization of human sanitary waste from urban settlements and its conversion into safe bio-based fertilizers for agricultural production in three pilot regions.
Our group has two new positions for hiring PhD candidates –
PhD position in technology development of next generation sanitation systems. Link: https://www.slu.se/en/about-slu/work-at-slu/jobs-vacancies/?rmpage=job&rmjob=7343&rmlang=UK
SLU has developed a new technology to treat source-separated human urine, where fresh human urine is chemically stabilised and then evaporated to produce water and a solid fertilizer. The technology has been piloted in several locations across Sweden (e.g., at the offices of VA Syd in Malmö). If implemented globally, human urine could substitute about one-quarter of current nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers worldwide.
The aim of this PhD project will be to continue the technology development, with focus on performing research in support of scaling up the urine dehydrating sanitation system. During this project, lab-scale treatment systems available at SLU will be scaled up into full scale operations for the production of 25 kg of dry fertilisers per day. The project will involve both fundamental research (e.g., evaluating changes to composition and properties of urine during dehydration) and implementation research (e.g., developing reactors for stabilizing urine at the toilet). The PhD project will be part of a larger Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Action collaborative project, âP2Greenâ (Closing the gap between fork and farm for circular nutrient flows), where three pilot regions will scale-up and implement innovative sanitation technologies in real-life conditions. The Island of Gotland will be one of the pilot regions where SLU will scale up and validate urine dehydration. Contact: Bjorn Vinneras
PhD position in sustainable assessment of new sanitation systems. Link:Â https://www.slu.se/en/about-slu/work-at-slu/jobs-vacancies/?rmpage=job&rmjob=7342&rmlang=UK
The aim of this project is to investigate the potential for new sanitation innovations to provide sustainable benefits by quantifying trade-offs in terms of environmental impacts, costs and uncertainties. The primary focus will be on developing decision-support tools that allow decision-makers to weight trade-offs and test options for integrating new sanitation systems into existing infrastructures. Methods used will include life cycle assessment, cost-benefit analysis and systems dynamic modeling. The assessment methods will be applied on case studies of emerging technologies for nutrient recovery from urine and wastewater in the context of an EU project. The work will include interaction with stakeholders to co-design of development trajectories for integrating new sanitation systems into the local context. Contact: Jennifer McConville
Vi hade glĂ€djen efter tvĂ„ Ă„rs vĂ€ntan, pga COVID, Ă€ntligen fĂ„ lyssna till Madeleine Fogdes förelĂ€sning âCommunication countsâ som en del i programmet nĂ€r hon utsĂ„gs till hedersdoktor vid NJ fakulteten pĂ„ SLU. Det var mycket intressant att höra vikten av att kommunicera och hur svaret pĂ„ en frĂ„ga pĂ„ hur man kan utföra en uthĂ„llig sanitetslösning frĂ„n ett katastrofomrĂ„de i Mocambique, som besvarades av Prof Emeritus HĂ„kan Jönsson och ledde till mĂ„nga installationer pĂ„ 90-talet och sedemera ledde till ett lĂ„ngvarigt samarbete kring uthĂ„llig sanitet och nu vĂ€lkomnar vi Madeleine till SLU. Se Madeleines presentation nedan, hon börjar 14 min in.
We had the joy, after waiting for two years, due to COVID, to finally listen to Madeleine Fogde’s lecture âCommunication countsâ as a part of the program of becoming honorary doctor at the NJ faculty at SLU. It was interesting to hear about the importance of communication and how a response to a question about how to construct sustainable sanitation after a natural disaster in Mozambique, that was answered by Prof Emeritus HĂ„kan Jönsson and lead to several installations of ecological sanitation systems during the 1990-ies. Later this also lead to a long-term collaboration on sustainable sanitation and now we say welcome for becoming a part of SLU. Madeleine’s presentation starts 14 min into the video below.
