Bark compound fertilizer to be created in Russia

Biotechnologists from Perm and Moscow universities found a way to increase soil fertility. The main components of the new fertilizer are waste from the pulp and paper industry, including bark, natural polymer, sawdust and sewage sludge. There are no analogs of this technology in Russia.

The new fertilizer will preserve nutrients in the soil, which will increase its fertility. Scientists have enriched a mixture based on bark and sawdust with a concentrated natural polymer, nitrogen and phosphorus.

“Modern pulp and paper enterprises have high-tech clean-up systems. However, there are problems with solid waste disposal, especially bark. Enterprises store large accumulations of bark and sawdust at specially designated sites and do not process them. Then the waste begins to rot and releases toxins that are very harmful to humans,” said one of the developers Yuri Vinogradov.

According to him, the volume of organic waste in the world is growing every day. The number of bark and sawdust is increasing by 10% each year as well. Europe and Asia use them for chipboard production, while in Russia bark is just stored for a long time. Only 5% of it can be taken for complete processing, the rest must be sent for sorting and further processing.

“We plan to use lower layers of bark for the production of the new eco-fertilizer. The top layers can be used to create fuel briquettes. The production technology of our product is quite simple: first, we sort and chop the bark, then we mix the main components using aerodynamic dispersers, after which we dry the mixture,” explained Yuri Vinogradov.