Proceedings

Bio-Refine is investigating the recycling of inorganic chemicals from agro- & bio-industry waste streams. The project is funded by the European Regional Development Fund under the INTERREG North West Region programme and will run for four years. The focus of the project will be towards closing nutrient cycles and developing sustainable resource management in the NWE region, both from an economical and ecological perspective. The NWE region with its high population density, intensive industrial and agricultural activity producing large amounts of residues, is an ideal testing ground for tackling these challenges. Therefore, Biorefine aims to follow a cross-sectoral and transnational approach involving all stakeholders and mobilising all knowledge available in the NWE region. The ultimate goal is to minimize residue flows and to economically valorise the minerals that can be recovered from these residue flows, thereby stimulating a bio-based economic growth and thus creating a win-win situation for both the environment and the economy in the NWE region. The project partners include groups from Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Germany and the UK. A key objective is to develop a UK nutrient platform to network industry, academia and poly makers to encourage the development of innovative technologies for the recycling and recuperation of nutrients from waste streams and to stimulate the development of trans-national networks with groups within the NWE region.
Keywords:Resource recovery, nutrient recovery, organic waste, closing-loop
Introduction
In the transition from a fossil based to a bio-based economy, it has become an important challenge to maximally close the nutrient cycles and migrate to a more sustainable resource management, both from an economical as an ecological perspective. Nutrient resources are rapidly depleting, significant amounts of fossil energy are used for the production of chemical fertilizers, whereas costs for energy and fertilizers are increasing. However, up until now this transition proved to be difficult to realise due to obstacles in (national) legislative systems, lack of integration of institutional and governance structures and lack of coordination between the actions undertaken by the different stakeholders and government levels. Although EU environmental legislation covers an increasing number of environmental aspects, there are still important challenges ahead to harmonise standards, techniques and markets in this area. The North West European (NWE) region with its high population density, intensive industrial and agricultural activity producing large amounts of residues, is an ideal testing ground for tackling these challenges. Therefore, Biorefine aims to follow a crosssectoral and transnational approach involving all stakeholders and mobilising all knowledge available in the NWE region.To achieve this goal different stakeholder parties in the project area will be brought together, thus covering a large spectrum of mineral flows and offering a broad array of existing recycling applications. This interaction will create leverage of knowledge and will inspire regional applications, thus making a transnational benefit possible. The ultimate goal is to minimize residue flows and to economically valorise the  minerals that can be recovered from these residue flows, thereby stimulating a bio-based economic growth and thus creating a win-win situation for both the environment and the economy in the NWE region.
In this project we set out to bring together all stakeholders for the implementation of joint transnational innovative actions to minimize residue flows and to economically valorise minerals that can be recovered from these residue flows. By bringing stakeholders together in a transnational knowledge platform, delivering pilot cross-sectoral applications of promising techniques on recycling and reusing of valuable minerals, and testing new systems for valorisation of recovered minerals, this project will provide improved and integrated responses to the technical, legislative and marketing challenges ahead. Sectors involved in the cooperation on this topic are: (a) Waste management and water purification organisations, both public and private, bringing together their expertise on techniques for recuperation of valuable minerals from waste and water; (b) The chemical processing industry bringing in line possibilities for reuse and valorisation of minerals that have been recycled (Cradle-to-Cradle, bio-based economy); (c) Agriculture, since several mineral residue flows have an organic base and mineral cycles can be closed relatively easily in this sector; It is therefore necessary to involve agriculture in a cross-sectoral approach; (d) Research institutes will be involved for knowledge development on this topic; In view of the cross-sectoral approach of this project, it will be necessary to involve different types of knowledge centres, covering technical, environmental as well as economical aspects.
Policies regarding to use, transport, reuse, recycling and disposal of nutrients are directed from the EU level through various directives (i.e., nitrate directive, water framework directive, etc). However, implementing policies from EU directives is decided at regional or national level. As a result, the policies are often not harmonized with each other and conflicts between regions may arise. Also transports of nutrients in the environment are not limited by national borders. Therefore, a transnational approach is utmost desired for effective policy making and efficient business development. This project will provide an action-oriented approach to deliver applied technological solutions and transnational strategy development for improved recycling and valorisation of minerals that are valuable both from a natural resource as well as from an economic perspective.