PNExt project

Situations/Problems:-

(1) High demand for mineral fertilizer to produce more food.

(2) Recently, Phosphorus demand has been increasing to manufacture batteries (lithium iron phosphate batteries) for electric vehicles.

(3) Mineral fertilizer production is an energy-intensive process that requires a significant amount of fossil fuel and water.

(4) Mineral fertilizer is produced in a few countries and must be transported worldwide, i.e., high transportation costs.

(4) Limited natural resource of rock phosphate (the source of Phosphorus fertilizer)

(4) Phosphorus and nitrogen leaching to surface water is a serious issue for water pollution or eutrophication.

(5) Organic waste such as sewage sludge, digested sludge (sludge from biogas plants), fecal sludge, urine and compost contains a significant amount of fertilizer component that can be recycled as fertilizer. However, this organic waste is not recycled on a large scale due to (1) limited market demand, (2) being bulky for transportation, (3) the risk of, pathogens, heavy metals, pharmaceutical residues, microplastics, etc.

(6) small and medium size waste enterprises are not sustained mainly due to lack of revenue generation due to limited market of their end products.

Our solutions:-

PNExt (a biochemical process) is an innovative technique (reviewing for invention disclosure) that can extract phosphorus (P) from sludge, digested sludge incinerated sludge Ash, animal manure, septic waste, fecal sludge, sewage sludge, etc.
Similarly, PNExt extracts nitrogen (N) and P from reject water, urine, liquid portion of fecal sludge, compost air-washing water, etc using the N recovery technique. (Patent)
The extracted P and N are recovered as a mineral fertilizer such as ammonium phosphate and ammonium sulfate fertilizer.
This process hygienizes the sludge and removes heavy metals.
The residual sludge is converted into biochar or briquette.

PNExt pitch slides

PNExt_pitch webpage.pptx

Mineral fertilizer produced from different types of waste

Contact

Research and development team

Surendra Pradhan, PhD

Principal investigator, Inventor

Email- surendra.pradhan@gmail.com

Phone- +358 400973372

Linkedin :-Surendra Pradhan | LinkedIn

Asko Simojoki, PhD, University of Helsinki
Sanna Kanerva, PhD, University of Helsinki
Eila Torvinen, PhD, University of Eastern Finland

Interns:-

Auriane Dedours from Unilasalle, France
Louise Battais from CY Cergy Paris Universite, France

Climate change expert

Mari Pihlatie (Professor)

University of Helsinki

Business

Pankaj Kela, MBA, Business and Marketing,

Email- pankaj.kela@gmail.com

Olli-Pekka Siira, PhD
Maris Ozinga, MSc-process engineer (scaling technology)

Nepali Collaborators:

Bimal Tandukar, B.E, MSc (Advisor-FSM Specialist)

Email:- bimal.tandukar@gmail.com,

Phone +977 9841812322

Dr Padam Raj Shrestha (DG, Leads Nepal)

Rajesh Pandit, PhD

(Tri Chandra College)

Prayag Kuikel PhD candidate

(Tri Chandra College)

The stakeholder of the project

University of Eastern Finland,
Neste Finland
Viikinmäki wastewater treatment plant, Helsinki

Cost-benefit analysis for PNExt

Treatment and Production of mineral fertilizer from Solid waste (10% TS) 10 m3/day and liquid waste 10 m3/day (Plant manufacturing cost about 10 000 000 €/unit)

Snaps of the pilot plant

Empty container for 1m 3 experiment

1 m3 reactor with sludge ready for incubation

Laboratory scale pilot plant

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