RELEAF: Recycling locally produced bio-wastes to ensure affordability and availability of innovative bio-based fertilisers.
Programme: HORIZON-JU-CBE-2023
Duration: 48 months, June 2024 – May 2028
Partners: Acondicionamiento Tarrasense, Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna, Rech Innov Transfert Techn Mat FERT ORG, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Nova ID FCT, Uniwersytet Rolniczy im. Hugona Kollataja w Krakowie, Instituto de Soldadura e Qualidade, Stichting Effost, Alchemia-Nova, Casali Roberto, Aeris Tecnologías Ambientales, Tecnopackaging, Global Omniun Medioambiente, Anecoop, Timac Agro Italia.
Objective: ReLEAF will formulate, produce, and demonstrate agronomic and environmental performance of safe, sustainable, and efficient Bio-based Fertilisers (BBFs) that can compete in the European and global fertilisers market by optimising, integrating, testing, and validating innovative technologies to efficiently recover and deliver agronomic added-value ingredients (nutrients and biostimulants) and other relevant products (biopolymers) from widely available bio-wastes, while creating new value chains and reducing the environmental impact linked to urban and agri-food wastes and the agriculture sector.
Therefore, the main objectives of the project include:
- Increase nutrient recycling from the selected bio-waste streams by up to 70% through the optimisation and demonstration of novel technologies for fertilising ingredients production
- Prevent the presence of microplastics (MP) in soil through advanced bio-based, biodegradable, and biocompatible materials as coatings for Controlled-Release Fertilisers (CRFs) that are harmless to the soil microbiome
- Reduce nutrient losses by up to 60% and nutrient inputs to soil by up to 30% through the optimisation and pre-industrial scale production of controlled-release, growth stage targeted, and biostimulant-doped BBFs
- Establish local and cost-effective circular supply chains to produce BBFs that increase resource efficiency and decrease reliance on imported materials by up to 20%
- Follow a transdisciplinary, multi-actor approach with active stakeholder engagement and co-creation to ensure industrial uptake and social acceptance
- Accelerate the transition towards bio-based fertilisers
The main role of Tecno within the project is the development of active mulching and planting pots at lab (WP1) and pre-industrial (WP2) scale, as well as the scalability of the encapsulated bio-based fertilisers for direct use.
Find more information in: ReLeaf – Recycling Locally Produced Bio-Wastes to Ensure Affordability and Availability of Innovative Bio-Based Fertilisers
Co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or CBE. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
Agreement N. 101156998 – RELEAF – HORIZON-JU-CBE-2023
