In both the Netherlands and Flanders, extensive manure surpluses are realised in animal husbandry every year. These manure surpluses are partly exported to neighbouring countries. At the same time, farmers in the Netherlands and Flanders have to purchase large quantities of expensive mineral fertilisers every year.
The Interreg project 'NITROMAN' aims to investigate in the Flemish-Dutch border region whether mineral fertilisers can be extracted from available manure surpluses. This would allow manure surpluses from local livestock farms to be processed on site into fertilisers for agriculture. The project focuses on processing liquid manure fraction from pig and cattle manure. NITROMAN aims to recover significant amounts of nitrogen, potassium and water from this liquid manure fraction through two innovative techniques. Nitrogen and potassium can then be applied as fertiliser in agriculture. The Latin term for nitrogen is 'nitrogenium'. Hence, the project was named NITROMAN.
Pilot installations will be installed at a number of livestock farms across the border region. NITROMAN will also develop a calculation tool. This will allow companies to calculate whether circular manure processing is feasible, and if so, which of the two techniques offers the most benefit to them. The knowledge gathered will be widely disseminated to the agricultural sector. In addition, interested companies will be able to attend demonstrations so that they can get up close and personal with the advantages of circular manure processing.
The project runs until the end of 2022, and consists of a number of work plans:
- Providing information to dairy farmers, arable farmers and horticulturists, through field demonstrations, publications, study days, etc.
- Analysis of agronomic properties, economic value and costs, and environmental impact of fertilisers. A calculation tool is being developed for this purpose, among others.
- Support producers in the (regional) marketing of the mineral concentrates, ammonium salts, etc.
- Inform and make recommendations to policymakers regarding opportunities and bottlenecks.
- Support manure processors and technology suppliers, in particular membrane techniques and stripping-scrubbing, in improving final products, solving practical processing bottlenecks, and reducing costs.
Retrieved from this page will bundle all information around the project.
INTERREG NL-VL
Nitroman was funded within the Interreg V programme Flanders-Netherlands, the cross-border cooperation programme with financial support from the European Regional Development Fund. More info:Â www.grensregio.eu.
