Nutrient recovery and reuse from biowastes

In November 2021, the EU H2020 project SYSTEMIC came to end, after four years of testing innovative nutrient recovery technology at five biogas plants across Europe.

For more information on SYSTEMIC and all of the outputs please check the website https://systemicproject.eu/

Each demonstration biogas plant dealt with different feedstocks and end-products (biobased fertilisers, soil improvers and organic fibres), and varying local market conditions, thus allowing for SYSTEMIC to gather information from a wide range of nutrient recovery conditions. Over the course of the project, the consortium worked together to identify the policy barriers to the wider uptake of similar nutrient recovery projects across Europe, and to identify potential policy opportunities.

What became strikingly clear was that the full potential of nutrient recovery and reuse from our biowastes will not be recognised until the end-products can compete on a level playing field with other (synthetic) fertilising products.

Working with organic waste materials is complex and requires expensive technologies and, like in many industries in our linear economy, reusing materials often comes at a higher cost than developing products from virgin materials.

The technology to recover nutrients from biowaste is well developed and applicable at the industrial scale, as shown by the SYSTEMIC project. But greater incentives are needed to stimulate the market for recovered nutrients.

In the H2020 SYSTEMIC project’s final policy note, the project outlines clearly the course of action needed by policy makers to enable the growth of this sector in order to scale up the circular economy to help achieve the objectives of the Green Deal.