Performing Department
GREENTECHNOLOGIES, LLC
Non Technical Summary
Biobased fertilizers are an under-utilized plant nutrient resource. Although recycled biobased enhanced efficiency fertilizers help conserve natural resources through protecting water quality, improving soil health, and promoting superior nutrient management practices, key factors leading to their underutilization include low nutrient content, nutrient imbalance, safety concerns related to storage, and lack of compatibility with established application methods. GreenTechnologies (hereinafter "GT") proposes to develop a patented new technology for applying a mineral coating onto biobased pellets to address these inherent barriers to expanded use of biosolids and manure-based fertilizers that will result in a unique line of enhanced efficiency fertilizer products fulfilling agricultural producers' needs in a cost-effective and environmentally sound manner.GT's Phase I technical objectives and work plan include: 1) Demonstrate the feasibility of a new coating process and show it is scalable and generalizable to a pallet of enhanced efficiency fertilizers. 2) Establish a range of mineral enhanced coatings with controllable composition that will satisfy anticipated applications. Coatings will be targeted to fill a range of needs, including enhancing essential macro and micronutrient content and overcoming safety concerns by reducing combustibility; 3) Analyze successful coatings for their physical and chemical characteristics. Optical and electron microscopy analyses, together with X-ray diffraction, will be used to determine physical attributes such as thickness and uniformity and whether the coatings bond strongly to the biosolid particles. Standard chemical analyses and microanalyses will be conducted to determine composition of the coated fertilizers; and 4) Demonstrate enhanced performance of the new coating technology relative to uncoated biosolid fertilizer. The nutrient release profiles of the coated biosolids will be evaluated to demonstrate the process adds benefit relative to uncoated biosolid pellets.GT's proposed mineral layer coating technology will expand on the capabilities of existing technologies by providing for even greater flexibility in nutrient content and ratios, providing for more efficient release of nutrients and solving the problems associated with physical characteristics such as bulk density and combustibility inherent in biobased fertilizers. At the conclusion of this project, GT envisions utilizing the mineral layer coating technology to manufacture and market an innovative line of enhanced efficiency biobased fertilizer products for commercialization in agricultural and specialty fertilizer markets.
Animal Health Component
40%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
20%
Applied
40%
Developmental
40%
Goals / Objectives
GT's Phase I technical objectives and work plan include: 1) Demonstrate the feasibility of a new coating process and show it is scalable and generalizable to a pallet of enhanced efficiency fertilizers. 2) Establish a range of mineral enhanced coatings with controllable composition that will satisfy anticipated applications. Coatings will be targeted to fill a range of needs, including enhancing essential macro and micronutrient content and overcoming safety concerns by reducing combustibility; 3) Analyze successful coatings for their physical and chemical characteristics. Optical and electron microscopy analyses, together with X-ray diffraction, will be used to determine physical attributes such as thickness and uniformity and whether the coatings bond strongly to the biosolid particles. Standard chemical analyses and microanalyses will be conducted to determine composition of the coated fertilizers; and 4) Demonstrate enhanced performance of the new coating technology relative to uncoated biosolid fertilizer. The nutrient release profiles of the coated biosolids will be evaluated to demonstrate the process adds benefit relative to uncoated biosolid pellets.
Project Methods
Work plan overview. The Phase I work plan is primarily laboratory based. While the proposed technology is generalizable to other biobased fertilizer platforms, GT will use its uncoated pelletized biosolids product throughout this project. This product is thermally dried and pelletized using a rotary drum dryer and classified as Exceptional Quality (E.Q.) Class A Biosolids by US EPA. Ultimately, GT proposes to utilize this product and similar granulated biosolids to commercialize the coating technology. The base analysis for the pelletized biosolids to be coated for this Phase I project is 6% nitrogen and 3% phosphorus (6-3-0).The general strategy for coating the biosolid pellets is to spray apply an aqueous solution containing at least one component of the coating elements to yield a solid product upon evaporating the water solvent (Chanda 2013). Typically, other components of the coating available as solid precursors can be blended with the biosolid pellets prior to spray application of the liquid phase. The aqueous spray creates a thin film on the pellets where the targeted salts form a mineral layer which encapsulates the biosolids.