Modern agriculture produces ever-increasing quantities of food from a reducing land area and is heavily reliant on artificial fertilisers and livestock slurries to maintain productivity, dramatically increasing the carbon footprint of the food we eat. A considerable proportion of fertiliser nutrients (phosphorous, nitrogen) used by English dairy farms are contained in animal slurries whose use causes over-application and accumulation of phosphorous in many soils, exacerbating nutrient leaching and eutrophication. In this project, four UK companies (ElentecBio, Mastek Engineering, StoicOptions, Merigan) and an academic partner operating a commercial dairy farm (Harper Adams University), will deploy a process to recover phosphorous, nitrogen and water from slurry, achieving 100% nutrient fractionation. The quality of recovered water and ability of separated nutrients to act as stable crop fertilisers will be measured. The consortium will engage with stakeholders to consider environmental regulations, co-develop business models and determine operational costs to underpin the value proposition needed for technology exploitation. The goal is to produce, locally sourced fertiliser nutrients for own use or for sale as commodities and enable English dairy farmers to reduce production costs and carbon footprint, reducing the UK's reliance on imported artificial fertiliser, reduce environmental impacts, and contribute to the UK's net-zero agenda.

Animal slurry is rich in fertiliser nutrients and an attractive sustainable fertiliser replacing industrially produced ones to help agriculture, particularly the dairy sector, achieve its net-zero targets for emissions. Unfortunately, application of slurry to farmed land is time-consuming and environmentally sensitive. We plan to work with dairy farmers to re-design how they manage their slurry using safe, affordable and energy efficient technologies that are compatible with their existing systems. We aim to help dairy farmers use their slurry in an environmentally and economically sustainable way, helping to recycle essential nutrients for plant growth and use their grasslands for carbon capture.