With the moisture and warming sun, the barley from our urine fertilizer trials are growing nicely. Planted April 30th. At this stage there is no visible difference between the treatments (no fertilizer, conventional fertilizer and urine fertilizer).
Category: English
Master student analyses nutrient flows
My name is Sharareh Farshchiha and I am doing my master in Environmental Science at Gothenburg University. I write my master thesis for Sweden Water Research in collaboration with Robin Harder as my supervisor in SLU. The aim of the study is to map and analyze the circularity of nutrient flows (N, P, K) for the current agricultural system, food consumption, and waste management infrastructure in Sweden. To analysis the nutrient flows, the Swedish food system was divided into five subsystems where the analysis performed focused on: 1. agricultural land, 2. livestock production, 3. food processing, 4. food consumption, and 5. residual management. The five subsystems was investigated considering internal and external nutrient flows. Internal flow represents the regional food system while the external flow relates to any food system outside of the geographical region of Sweden which interacts with the regional food system by food and feed imports and exports. To calculate the amount of nutrients in the five subsystems associated with external and internal flows, a calculation model was performed in Microsoft Excel. The model calculation in this study was developed by Robin Harder for Swedish food system. The extend of the model for waste system was done by a collaboration between me and a student from Lund University, Emma Enström, who is doing her master thesis in the same topic but for Skåne.
Presentation about larvae for high school students held from the office
Friday afternoon, the 23rd of April, Lovisa Lindberg was standing in her office and held a presentation about larvae as a substitute for fish feed for high school students from Värmdö municipality. This was a part of BSSC’s (Baltic Sea Science Center) theme week at Skansen where they invited different experts to talk about their science projects related to the Baltic Sea. Classes from grade 9 up to grade 12 booked the lectures they wanted to attend to during this week. In addition to the lectures, they were sent material in advance to read or watch such as popular summaries about the topic or if there were any videos available. After the lecture, the work continued with a scientific paper related to the topic and the goal was for them to get an understanding of how a scientific paper is written.
Report from thematic workshop on recirculating nutrients from urban to rural areas
In Sweden, as is the case in many places, there are signs of a disconnect between actors working in waste sectors and those working in farming, food, and agriculture. Yet there is a desire to bridge this gap. On 5 November 2020, the Swedish Nutrient Platform (SNP) and the project End-of-wastewater jointly held a thematic workshop on the topic of recirculating nutrients from urban to rural areas. In this multi-stakeholder digital workshop, 40 actors from the Swedish food and waste management sectors discussed desired characteristics of recycled fertilizer products derived from human excreta and wastewater, including how their uptake could be promoted. The workshop was guided by a literature review and a suite of interviews and surveys that were conducted prior to the workshop. The report summarizes the results from the workshop.
Can Sweden achieve a circular economy for phosphorus?
The need for a more circular use of nutrients, notably phosphorus (P), has been widely discussed in Sweden, not least in response to the release of the new enquiry on sustainable use of sewage sludge (SOU 2020:3). But what would a transition to a circular economy for phosphorus look like? How much phosphorus is needed for biomass production in Sweden? And what possibilities are there to replace the widely used virgin mineral phosphorus with phosphorus from secondary sources?
Vinnova Funding
Our company, Sanitation360, that is looking to commercialize the urine drying technology developed by our group received Vinnova funding to develop a business model for implementing the urine treatment system in South Africa. This is an ideal starting point as in and around Durban, South Africa, there is increase interest in urine-diverting toilets and SLU has an on-going collaboration with the University of KwaZulu-Natal. The project start now and will run till December 2021.
Jenna Senecal awarded the ÅForsk
Jenna Senecal has been recognized as one of Sweden’s top ten innovative entrepreneurs by receiving the 2021 ÅForsk Entreprenörsstipendium. The ÅForsk Entrepreneurship Scholarship is awarded in collaboration between the ÅForsk Foundation and the industry organization Swedish Incubators & Science Parks. Sweden’s 10 most innovative entrepreneurs are appointed during Sweden’s Innovation Parliament 2021 and are awarded SEK 200,000 each. The applicant entrepreneur must have a connection to the university environment, either as a student, doctoral student, researcher or teacher.
New master student writing thesis about
My name is Linnéa and I am doing my master thesis at Uppsala University (UU) and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU). I am currently in my last semester as a civil engineer in molecular biotechnology at UU. I was born and raised in Västerås but have lived and studied in Uppsala since 2016. I had never been to SLU before my master thesis, so I think it is exiting to discover new environments and meet new people during my semester here writing my master thesis!
My thesis is a collaboration between UU, SLU and two companies called Nanoform Science and Sanitation 360. Nanoform Science is a company that has developed a technology for manufacturing very acidic metal oxide surfaces which should have antimicrobial properties. Sanitation 360 is a company that wants to turn human urine into dry fertilizer by using treatment systems in connection with urine-separating toilets. These two companies are both interested in investigating the properties of these very acidic metal oxide surfaces. Nanoform Science wants to investigate whether the surfaces have antimicrobial activity, since they thereafter could develop the surfaces into environments where biofilms thrive, e.g. hospitals, dental clinics and sewage systems. Sanitation 360 is interested in the surfaces since biofilm growth in their treatment system leads to loss of nutrition in their fertilizer product.
During my work, I will mainly focus on developing a method for growing urease-positive biofilms, then I want to test the method on the surfaces from Nanoform Science.
Docent lecture: Annika Nordin
Last Wednesday, Annika Nordin in the Environmental Engineering group held her docent lecture Safe resource recovery – managing microbial hazards of wastewater reuse systems. If you for some reason missed it, don’t fret, you can watch it here:
Emma Enström investigates food systems in Skåne
My name is Emma Enström and I am studying for a master degree in Strategic Environmental Work at Lund University. My master in science contain topics like contaminated soil, blue-green solutions, environmental impact assessments but also about circular economy, life cycle assessments, policy instruments and system assessments. I am writing my master thesis for Sweden Water Research in collaboration with Robin Harder in the Environmental Engineering Group.
The study aims to map nutrient flows in food system within the region of Skåne, which are linked to the global food system. The study includes internal and external flows of nutrients (N, P and K) within the existing food, agricultural and residual electricity system. The study will thus examine opportunities and barriers in a future with a more sustainable management of these nutrients. The study is intended to contribute to the ongoing discussion in Skåne regarding nutrient flows in the region and provide a greater understanding of nutrient flows related to food production, consumption and residual flows. The study will also explore future scenarios to contribute with knowledge of whether food consumption in Skåne can be supported by local food production. The method I will use has been designed by Robin Harder and is a system assessment that takes into account the connections between a regional food system and the global food system in which it is embedded.