P2GreeN’s overall objective is to foster a circular material flow system between urban and rural areas thereby restoring the coupling of the water-agri-food system following the 3R principle “Reduce, Reuse, Recover”. To achieve this, P2GreeN will develop new solutions for the circular economy to halt and eliminate nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) pollution by connecting blue urban with green rural infrastructure, focussing on circular nutrient flows of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P), two important plant nutrients and at the same time water polluters. This objective will be achieved through the implementation and exploration of innovative N and P recovery solutions for the utilization of human sanitary waste from urban settlements and its conversion into safe bio-based fertilizers for agricultural production in three pilot regions.
Nitrogen and P are important plant nutrients and pollutants of surface and groundwater at the same time. The intensive use of fertilizers in agricultural production is a major factor for N and P pollution. Apart from that, mainstream fertilizer production methods are not sustainable. Additionally, high nutrient concentrations are also found in human sanitary waste streams from where they are ultimately released to rivers and coastal zones. Nutrient removal from wastewater is very energy intensive and hardly manageable. The use of sewage sludge for fertilization, however, is connected to problems such as micro pollutants. In consequence, new solutions are required.
The three P2GreeN pilot regions are based in Gotland, the Metropolitan Region of Hamburg-Hannover and the La Axarquia region. The 4 P2GreeN follower regions are located in Italy, Greece, France and Hungary. The consortium is composed of small and medium-sized enterprises, large-scale enterprises, an international finance institute, research organizations, municipalities of one which is a European Megacity (City of Paris), an NGO and a farmers’ cooperative.
More information is available on the project website: https://p2green.eu/
