The Extremadura Agricultural and Food Technological Centre (CTAEX) played host to the dissemination of a results and networking event for the Life+ Integral Carbon Project, on the 20th October 2016. The goal of this project is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the agricultural sector through the local development of algae bio-improvers, subsequently added to soils with the dual purpose of adding nutrients and sequestering carbon.

The event emphasized the importance of producing fertilizers from organic or secondary raw materials and is in line with the Circular Economy model of turning agricultural waste into nutrients for crops. The reuse of raw materials, which are currently disposed of as waste, is one of the key principles of the Circular Economy package adopted by the European Commission.

The initiative also serves to promote new market opportunities for innovative companies, while reducing the volume of waste, energy consumption and environmental damage.

To this end, the project aims to produce secondary raw materials, optimizing the use of raw materials while simultaneously converting eutrophication and problems of waste management into economic opportunities for public and private operators. Improved resource use also leads to reduced dependence on imported raw materials essential for European agriculture, e.g. phosphorus, while at the same time boosting investment and innovation in the circular economy, and consequently job creation in the EU in general.  This project will also help to relieve the current pressure on the fertilizer industry to reduce their CO2 emissions under the emissions trading scheme, through enabling the production of fertilizer from raw materials with lower carbon emissions.

In his opening presentation, José Luis Llerena, Director of CTAEX stressed the importance of giving priority to the Circular Economy in the agro-food industry as a means of reducing the impact of climate change.

The keynote speech was delivered by Juan Carlos Rad Moradillo, Professor at the University of Burgos, who presented the results of the project LIFE + Integral Carbon.  The project uses an integrated photobioreactor designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHG ) in agribusiness.  This project was convened as a response to the LIFE 2013 call for proposals for the mitigation of climate change associated with diverse agribusiness activities, through the use of innovative techniques based on the capture of GHG, in this case, the cultivation of native algae to obtain soil bioenhancers.

A number of networking activities took place throughout the day among other LIFE projects of a similar theme. Jorge Garcia Fernandez, Councillor for the Economic Development Area and member of the Empleo-Ciudad Activa for the City of La Vall d'Uixó (Castellón) introduced Life + ECOCITRIC, an Integrated Citric Waste Management project. Ascension Ciruelos Calvo of CTAEX, technical coordinator of the project, presented the results of the LIFE iCirBus-4Industries - a Circular Economy Innovator in the Energy, Water, Fertilizers and Construction industries, for a Sustainable Regional Economy. Later in he program, David Sanz Escribano, technician for the Technology and Chemical Analysis department in AIDIMME, went on to speak about the LIFE In-BRIEF project - an Integrated business model for turning Bio-waste and sewage sludge into renewable energy and agri-urban Fertilizers.

During the round table discussion on new perspectives in fertilization: a Circular Economy, José Luis García of the DFGroup part of FERCOEX, pointed out the lack of organic matter in the soil; José Antonio Cano, from Nugest, highlighted the need to correct the imbalance between cereal production and consumption, in which fertilizers play a key role; Valentín Almodóvar of Herogra emphasised that sources of raw materials, such as phosphorus, can often be a bottleneck for the manufacture of fertilizers; while, Sebastián Trinidad, presented the COMPLUS project, a company that will produce compost, a fertilizer produced from agricultural crop residues, which itself began life as a CTAEX R&D project.