Blog from the Environmental Engineering Research Group at SLU
On July 3rd Jenna Senecal presented at Almedalen 2022. The first presentation was about our urine treatment technology (link to the video presentation found here https://youtu.be/h0L8WeJIACw). The second was a panel discussion about youth and sustainable food systems hosted by SIANI, World Food Program, and Agroforestry Network (link to the video presentation found here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_ue8_ttYws).
On Gotland, we have a 350 m2 field trial growing barley that has been fertilized with dried urine (collected on Gotland in summer 2021 with TouchDown), mineral fertilizer or no fertilizer. This summer, we complemented the urine fertilizer with mineral phosphorus to match the recommended fertilizer needs of malting barley. The fertilized plants are growing well, while the none fertilized plants are shorter. We will harvest in late August and test the grain quality.
Den 8 juni försvarade Alice Isibika framgÄngsrikt sin avhandling Förbehandling och substratblandning för ökad processeffektivitet vid fluglarvskompostering av livsmedelsindustriavfall. Extern opponent var Professor Sven Gjedde Sommer frÄn Aarhus Universitet (Danmark). Betygskommittén bestod av Docent Lara Maistrello frÄn University of Modena och Reggio Emilia Area San Lazzaro (Italien), Dr Chrysantus Tanga frÄn International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (Kenya) och Docent Maria Westerholm frÄn SLU hÀr i Uppsala. Reserv var docent à ke Nordberg frÄn vÄr egen institution. Alice fick mÄnga frÄgor frÄn bÄde opponenten och betygskommittén och försvaret pÄgick frÄn 13 till 16:30. Vi tycker att Alice gjorde ett mycket bra jobb och gratulerar henne till denna prestation. Vi önskar Alice lycka till i framtiden och hoppas att hon kommer att kunna tillÀmpa det hon lÀrt sig under sin doktorandtid nÀr hon nu ÄtervÀnder till Tanzania.
On the 8th of June, Alice Isibika successfully defended her thesis Use of pre-treatments and substrate blending to enhance process efficiency in black soldier fly larvae composting of food industry waste. External reviewer was Professor Sven Gjedde Sommer from Aarhus University (Denmark). The evaluation committee was Associate Professor Lara Maistrello from University of Modena and Reggio Emilia Area San Lazzaro (Italy), Dr Chrysantus Tanga from International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (Kenya) and Docent Maria Westerholm from SLU here in Uppsala. The reserve in the committee was Docent Ă ke Nordberg from our own department. Alice got a lot of questions from both the opponent and the committee members, and the defense lasted from 1 pm till 4:30 pm. We think Alice did a great job and congratulate her on this achievement. We wish Alice the best of luck in her future endeavors, and hope that she will be able to apply what she studied in her thesis work also in practice when she returns home to Tanzania.
In this latest publication on game-based approaches for planning and decision-making for sanitation, we have collaborated with researchers at EAWAG. The study aimed to answer the question: how effective are game-based interventions specifically designed to support decision-making processes? We used an illustrative case to reflect on this question. We simultaneously designed a card game to support sanitation decision-making and an evaluation procedure.
We found that it is possible to address the dual challenge of game-based interventions for participatory decision-making processes:
(1) designing an informative and engaging game-based intervention without telling participants what to think and
(2) designing a tailored evaluation procedure. Designing the game-based intervention and its evaluation simultaneously is valuable both to improve the quality of the game, but also the opportunity provided a structured assessment of the results.
We encourage others to follow this approach and use the evaluation framework proposed in this paper.
In the lead up to Stockholm+50*, Jenna Senecal was asked what her message is to the international community. See what she has to say here
Stockholm+50 was an event at the beginning of June calling for leaders to take bold environmental action to accelerate the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals.
Representing SLU and Sanitation360, Jenna Senecal spoke about how the sanitation sector can help to solve the looming food crises.
The whole presentation can be watched here (Jenna starts at 37:48).
Urankhaich Batsukh, MSc student of Environmental Economics and Management, won the Global sustainability award at SLU Ultuna’s Thesis Day 2022, with the title “The role of business intermediaries to advance circular bioeconomy”.
The aim of the study was to investigate the role of business intermediaries in recycling plant-essential nutrients from wastewater. The empirical context is the implementation of nutrient recycling from wastewater for agricultural applications in Sweden. Since many firms specialized in the field, a multi-case study approach was conducted on Biototal, C-Green, Easymining, Ekobalans, LantmÀnnen, and LRF. The data was collected from six-semi structured interviews with secondary data.
Hör Björn VinnerÄs och andra forskare prata om framtidens vattensystem i Sverige Radio P1s program om toaletter nu och i framtiden. Programmet fokuserar pÄ vattentoaletten och vilken funktion den har och om det Àr möjligt att vi i framtiden har andra toalettlösningar. Det Björn pratar om Àr gruppens forskning kring att producera ett torrt koncentrerat urinbaserat gödsel.
Klicka hÀr för att lyssna pÄ programmet.
Hear Björn VinnerÄs together with other researchers talk about the future water systems in program 1 at Swedish national radio. The focus of the program is the water closet, its function today and if it is possible to have different solutions in the future. Björn presents the research the group perform regarding the production of a dry urine based fertilizer.
Click here to access the talk (in Swedish).