We would love to hear your feedback on a new Severn Trent Fertiliser we're developing

KatieMeehanST · Jan 10, 2022

Hi all

My name is Katie Meehan and I work as a Product and Service Designer for Severn Trent. As a company which is constantly striving to do the right thing in order to help respond to our ever changing climate, we have identified an opportunity using new technology to develop a new environmental and carbon friendly fertiliser from our biosolid waste.

I am reaching out on the farming forum because we are in relatively early phases of development and would like to put our potential customers like yourselves at the heart of our new product and develop it alongside you and your needs. Your expertise and unique perspective would really help us develop and drive the fertiliser further.

A bit about the proposed fertiliser product:

We have utilised carbon capture technology in sewage treatment processes to create a sustainable pelletised organic fertiliser from waste.
We have partnered with CCm Technologies to use captured carbon dioxide to stabilise nitrogen, phosphates and organic chemicals contained in waste and turn it into plant nutrients.
The project at our plant near Birmingham represents the first time the technology has been applied to the wastewater treatment process.
By transforming those nutrients that are held in the sludge into a balanced fertilizer formulation, they can be introduced back into the environment in a controlled and beneficial way so that they're producing growth in agricultural crops with no other harmful side effects.
The process saves carbon in two ways - the first is by the direct capture of carbon dioxide from gas streams. The second by drawing out primary nutrients from waste materials.
Out of this process we get this pelletized organic fertilizer, that's as good as any commercial mineral fertilizer, but with a much, much lower carbon footprint.
It’s an experimental programme devised to produce a 5 percent nitrogen, a 10 percent nitrogen and a high carbon (Carbon Max) formulation.
We also have our press release which you can find here: https://www.severntrent.com/media/news-releases/severn-trent-recycles-waste-into--super-fertiliser--using-world-/

It would be great to know what your initial thoughts to this proposed fertiliser product are? What do you like about it? What don’t you like? And what would you influence or change?

If you would like to learn more or discuss over the phone please contact me at [email protected] and if you would be interested in providing further more detailed feedback please go on our survey monkey https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/7RJKF8C

Thanks
Katie

Courier · Jan 10, 2022

How much are you proposing to pay farmers to take this stuff off your hands ?

Luke Cropwalker · Jan 10, 2022

Do you intend to stop dumping sewage into rivers while under-investing in infrastructure but still paying shareholder dividends?

Forkdriver · Jan 10, 2022

Your spiel doesn't address a few crucial points of interest to the end user.
Exactly what is the npk content.
What proportion is plastics. Micro plastics are a huge issue as you can degrade your land if they exist.
What about other potential contaminated additives.
This is your responsibility and waste disposal problem. As the previous poster said. What is it worth to you to spread it, and when do you want to do it? I have to declare a vested interest as l worked for Anglian Water and compensated land owners for some appalling cock ups.

hollister · Jan 10, 2022

what's going to spread this?

melted welly · Jan 10, 2022

Do you get much antibiotic, pharmaceutical product contamination etc in the product?

Between contraceptives, hrt, gender reassignment procedures, antibiotics, antidepressants we’re quite a heavily medicated country, those things will be present in the human waste, would you grow food in it?

What’s to say your not just moving a relatively easily measured and removed problem in rivers into a harder to measure, longer term/permanent issue onto privately owned soils? potentially to the severe detriment of future generations of the UK’s food production.

Steevo · Jan 10, 2022

So this fertiliser is more carbon friendly than other fertilisers….

But surely having been pelleted and dried, it consumes carbon to do this, even if powered by an AD plant because that is energy that could replace other energy sources already used for domestic heating or such.

Transporting it all over the country (admittedly minus the water) can’t be too environmentally friendly either compared to delivering sludge a few miles down the road to farms locally.

No plastic bags need to be manufactured or disposed of for bulk either.

Steevo · Jan 10, 2022

Is this not just greenwashing of a brown product?

Steevo · Jan 10, 2022

Pawel Kisielewski, CEO at CCm Technologies, said: “This partnership means we can take nutrients from wastewater and turn them into fertilisers that can go back into the ground and contribute to growing healthy crops.

“Circular economy solutions like ours are crucial to addressing environmental challenges. It’s fantastic this partnership allows us to change otherwise waste resources and damaging emissions into benefits for both the farming and water industry. Hopefully, as these solutions begin to scale, we can feel reassured that the food we’re eating and water we’re using is working with rather than against nature.”

Flatlander · Jan 10, 2022

Would be interesting to see a complete analysis of the finished product. Between all the pills people pop to engine oil poured down drains I wouldn’t be too quick to eat vegetables grown on this. Great way of pulling the wool over your eyes calling organic fertilizer. A deceased friend that made animal feed once told me a pellet mill would turn sh1t into gold. Seems he was right.
I wonder if joe public would be behind buying the food grown from this waste product if they knew where it came from.

Flatlander · Jan 10, 2022

hollister said:
what's going to spread this?

View attachment 1009114

My salford spreader would. Anything less than an inch square will pass thru.

davidroberts30 · Jan 10, 2022

KatieMeehanST said:
Hi all

My name is Katie Meehan and I work as a Product and Service Designer for Severn Trent. As a company which is constantly striving to do the right thing in order to help respond to our ever changing climate, we have identified an opportunity using new technology to develop a new environmental and carbon friendly fertiliser from our biosolid waste.

I am reaching out on the farming forum because we are in relatively early phases of development and would like to put our potential customers like yourselves at the heart of our new product and develop it alongside you and your needs. Your expertise and unique perspective would really help us develop and drive the fertiliser further.

A bit about the proposed fertiliser product:

We have utilised carbon capture technology in sewage treatment processes to create a sustainable pelletised organic fertiliser from waste.

We have partnered with CCm Technologies to use captured carbon dioxide to stabilise nitrogen, phosphates and organic chemicals contained in waste and turn it into plant nutrients.

The project at our plant near Birmingham represents the first time the technology has been applied to the wastewater treatment process.

By transforming those nutrients that are held in the sludge into a balanced fertilizer formulation, they can be introduced back into the environment in a controlled and beneficial way so that they're producing growth in agricultural crops with no other harmful side effects.

The process saves carbon in two ways - the first is by the direct capture of carbon dioxide from gas streams. The second by drawing out primary nutrients from waste materials.

Out of this process we get this pelletized organic fertilizer, that's as good as any commercial mineral fertilizer, but with a much, much lower carbon footprint.

It’s an experimental programme devised to produce a 5 percent nitrogen, a 10 percent nitrogen and a high carbon (Carbon Max) formulation.

We also have our press release which you can find here: https://www.severntrent.com/media/news-releases/severn-trent-recycles-waste-into--super-fertiliser--using-world-/

It would be great to know what your initial thoughts to this proposed fertiliser product are? What do you like about it? What don’t you like? And what would you influence or change?

If you would like to learn more or discuss over the phone please contact me at [email protected] and if you would be interested in providing further more detailed feedback please go on our survey monkey https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/7RJKF8C

Thanks
Katie

What a load of shyte

Muddyroads · Jan 10, 2022

Forkdriver · Jan 10, 2022

So Katie, not an early win of the target audience.

benny6910 · Jan 10, 2022

Forkdriver said:
So Katie, not an early win of the target audience.

I’m sure everyone will change there mind when they only want £400 a ton for it.

onesiedale · Jan 10, 2022

Katie, please don't take the responses here personally. However they do accurately sum up the general feeling of dis-trust at a 'corporate' answer to what is largely a problem of 'corporate' making. Somehow it seems to be viewed that farmers will welcome your reductionist solutions with open arms because all we want to do is spread the next cheapest product of science on the ground to make our soils grow crops in the absence of expensive fertilizers.
Well, we've pretty well had 3 generations of experts telling us what fantastic products of science we need to grow food. To be honest, we've had enough now.
If Severn Trent really believe this stuff to be so good then GIVE it to all of your tenant farmers to help them grow food on the water catchment areas of your reservoirs.
I'm sure that your risk assessments will find that agreeable.

onesiedale · Jan 10, 2022

KatieMeehanST said:
Hi all

My name is Katie Meehan and I work as a Product and Service Designer for Severn Trent. As a company which is constantly striving to do the right thing in order to help respond to our ever changing climate, we have identified an opportunity using new technology to develop a new environmental and carbon friendly fertiliser from our biosolid waste.

I am reaching out on the farming forum because we are in relatively early phases of development and would like to put our potential customers like yourselves at the heart of our new product and develop it alongside you and your needs. Your expertise and unique perspective would really help us develop and drive the fertiliser further.

A bit about the proposed fertiliser product:

We have utilised carbon capture technology in sewage treatment processes to create a sustainable pelletised organic fertiliser from waste.

We have partnered with CCm Technologies to use captured carbon dioxide to stabilise nitrogen, phosphates and organic chemicals contained in waste and turn it into plant nutrients.

The project at our plant near Birmingham represents the first time the technology has been applied to the wastewater treatment process.

By transforming those nutrients that are held in the sludge into a balanced fertilizer formulation, they can be introduced back into the environment in a controlled and beneficial way so that they're producing growth in agricultural crops with no other harmful side effects.

The process saves carbon in two ways - the first is by the direct capture of carbon dioxide from gas streams. The second by drawing out primary nutrients from waste materials.

Out of this process we get this pelletized organic fertilizer, that's as good as any commercial mineral fertilizer, but with a much, much lower carbon footprint.

It’s an experimental programme devised to produce a 5 percent nitrogen, a 10 percent nitrogen and a high carbon (Carbon Max) formulation.

We also have our press release which you can find here: https://www.severntrent.com/media/news-releases/severn-trent-recycles-waste-into--super-fertiliser--using-world-/

It would be great to know what your initial thoughts to this proposed fertiliser product are? What do you like about it? What don’t you like? And what would you influence or change?

If you would like to learn more or discuss over the phone please contact me at [email protected] and if you would be interested in providing further more detailed feedback please go on our survey monkey https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/7RJKF8C

Thanks
Katie

meanwhile, a philosophical thought for you

“The aim of science is to seek the simplest explanations of complex facts. We are apt to fall into the error of thinking that the facts are simple because simplicity is the goal of our quest. The guiding motto in the life of every natural philosopher should be, 'Seek simplicity and distrust it"

Badshot · Jan 10, 2022

I've said for a long time that every sewage works should have an ad plant producing gas to be turned into electricity, and use the waste heat to dry the sewage into pellets.
It should be a cost neutral exercise, and trying to get farms to pay for it when potentially the other option to spread sludge has effectively been banned by the EA, is somewhat underhanded.

What exactly do the sewage companies intend to do with all the waste?

We're slowly being regulated out of existence, and there is no long term thought for the countries food security.

Steevo · Jan 10, 2022

Seems something similar was trialled by Thames Water nearly a decade ago. The trial plant produced wait for it……..half a tonne a day.

Reactor turns sewage into fertiliser - BBC News

A new reactor that turns sewage from an industrial estate into fertiliser is installed by Thames Water.

www.bbc.co.uk

“A Thames Water spokesman said if the reactor, built by Canadian firm Ostara, proved successful, the firm would consider installing more.”

I haven’t heard any more and cannot find any more recent press articles so assume it was a dead duck.
Ostara the company trialling and financing the whole plant are still going and in other countries still sell this fertiliser as Crystal Green.

Steevo · Jan 10, 2022

Badshot said:
What exactly do the sewage companies intend to do with all the waste?

Burn it perhaps….?

How Scotland’s sewage becomes renewable energy - Drax Global

Dealing with waste is a major challenge for modern cities but this plant turns it into renewable fuel

www.drax.com

Seems it wasn’t too popular initially…

Watchdog to crack down on illegal burning of human sewage ENVIRONMENT: WASTE INCINERATION Sepa takes action against most polluting plant

THE government's environment watchdog is planning a crackdown on the illegal burning of human sewage at Scotland's most polluting industrial plant.

www.heraldscotland.com

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