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

Badshot · Jan 11, 2022

Locally here in Kent they put in plants to simply dry the sludge and make pellets of it.
This was spreadable any time of year as there was little or no smell to it.
It did require a bredal type spreader.
They stopped due to being too costly to make them I believe.
Shame they were popular.

milkloss · Jan 11, 2022

benny6910 said:
I’m sure everyone will change there mind when they only want £400 a ton for it.

Agree.

davidroberts30 · Jan 11, 2022

Badshot said:
Locally here in Kent they put in plants to simply dry the sludge and make pellets of it.
This was spreadable any time of year as there was little or no smell to it.
It did require a bredal type spreader.
They stopped due to being too costly to make them I believe.
Shame they were popular.

Welsh water just dump it in the rivers....

Bogweevil · Jan 11, 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 t...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

I wouldn't bother with farmers, sell into horticultural or amateur markets as a premium sustainable product.

yellowbelly · Jan 11, 2022

KatieMeehanST said:
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?

It also would be great to know what the full analysis of your product is.
Not just N P K and trace elements but EVERYTHING it contains.

How do you remove all the heavy metals and other nasties (and how to you dispose of same) that are a well known constituent of sewage sludge?

roscoe erf · Jan 11, 2022

famers the dumping ground of the uk

Clive · Jan 11, 2022

With N prices where they are today and the carbon footprint of manufacturing the stuff I can see this. being a useful alternative

IF

it’s cheap
its spreads (to width)
it stores
its available to crop
it’s free of heavy metal / antibiotics/ chlorine etc

Clive · Jan 11, 2022

Steevo said:
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.

to be fair its not hard to have a lower C footprint than synthetic N !

Clive · Jan 11, 2022

benny6910 said:
I’m sure everyone will change there mind when they only want £400 a ton for it.

think it’s only 10% N so would need to be a lot cheaper than that - not just to complete with synthetic N prices but to compensate for the extra logistics required for a 1/3rd strength product

Courier · Jan 11, 2022

Clive said:
With N prices where they are today and the carbon footprint of manufacturing the stuff I can see this. being a useful alternative

IF

it’s cheap
its spreads (to width)
it stores
its available to crop
it’s free of heavy metal / antibiotics/ chlorine etc

And also needs to be free of micro plastics…….

Courier · Jan 11, 2022

roscoe erf said:
famers the dumping ground of the uk

Only if they want to be…

curlietailz · Jan 11, 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

Hi Katie

I must congratulate you on the thinking behind approaching a Farming Forum
This does show engagement with the target audience
But
You have arrived at a very difficult time
As the EA Rules for Water have banned the spreading of FYM, manure, sludge and slurry on land in the Autumn
And the farming fraternity are livid
To the point of cancelling sewage sludge orders….. so your industry will literally be swimming in the proverbial

you need us to dispose of all the shyte

we are not a waste disposal facility

and you are going to have a hard time convincing farmers that your product is good for farmers I’m afraid in these times

curlietailz · Jan 11, 2022

milkloss said:
Agree.

At 5% N. ???? Don’t think so

curlietailz · Jan 11, 2022

Courier said:
And also needs to be free of micro plastics…….

And Heavy Metals !

humans eat food produced from a wide area of land….
They poop….
That poop gets spread on a small area of land ( relative to the amount of land the initial food it takes to make the poop)
That land produces food which may have taken up the more concentrated heavy metals……
The food gets eaten and the cycle goes round again
The heavy metals get more and more concentrated
What could that lead to ?
Potential poisoning of the land and impossible to grow edible food
All mynown opinion of course
But look at the science

Clive · Jan 11, 2022

curlietailz said:
And Heavy Metals !

humans eat food produced from a wide area of land….
They poop….
That poop gets spread on a small area of land ( relative to the amount of land the initial food it takes to make the poop)
That land produces food which may have taken up the more concentrated heavy metals……
The food gets eaten and the cycle goes round again
The heavy metals get more and more concentrated
What could that lead to ?
Potential poisoning of the land and impossible to grow edible food
All mynown opinion of course
But look at the science

I think it actually make a lot of sense for nutrition to become more circular - be that using animal waste or human

Indeed surely true sustainability is impossible without that ? The days of synthetic nutrition are surely numbered now ?

However it must be done in environmentally safe and economically sound ways

I stopped taking sewage sludge when water companies decided they could charge me to dispose of their waste - the wrong way around IMO ....... I wanted them to pay me, sadly farmers have no unity or leadership so they just went to the next farmer that would pay them ! ........ This is what needs to change

I have spoken with @KatieMeehanST about this product, its sound very much still in development and she was keen to hear what farmers wanted ....... this is an opportunity to help them help us for mutual benefit maybe ? If we want paying to take waste then let's make that clear ......... however I suspect the first farmer to see a product more economic than synthetic N will break that just as is the case with sludge

benny6910 · Jan 11, 2022

Clive said:
think it’s only 10% N so would need to be a lot cheaper than that - not just to complete with synthetic N prices but to compensate for the extra logistics required for a 1/3rd strength product

Sorry I think you maybe miss understood the slight tongue in cheek about my words. Nobody will want to pay for a large company to offset there carbon footprint in return for a low n product that looks like it won’t spread through a normal fertiliser spreader.
I also don’t know much about carbon capture but does it mean that when the pellet breaks down the carbon will be released again or will the soil be storing the carbon for ever?

milkloss · Jan 11, 2022

Clive said:
I think it actually make a lot of sense for nutrition to become more circular - be that using animal waste or human

Indeed surely true sustainability is impossible without that ? The days of synthetic nutrition are surely numbered now ?

However it must be done in environmentally safe and economically sound ways

I stopped taking sewage sludge when water companies decided they could charge me to dispose of their waste - the wrong way around IMO ....... I wanted them to pay me, sadly farmers have no unity or leadership so they just went to the next farmer that would pay them ! ........ This is what needs to change

I have spoken with @KatieMeehanST about this product, its sound very much still in development and she was keen to hear what farmers wanted ....... this is an opportunity to help them help us for mutual benefit maybe ? If we want paying to take waste then let's make that clear ......... however I suspect the first farmer to see a product more economic than synthetic N will break that just as is the case with sludge

A good post Clive.

im not going to crack some joke about needing a farming union but we do need an organisation that consists of farmers to evaluate waste and it's safe use on farms which can also negotiate trade terms for the agricultural sector. Could be funded by a tax on the waste producers payment to the farmer.

SilliamWhale · Jan 11, 2022

Clive said:
Indeed surely true sustainability is impossible without that ? The days of synthetic nutrition are surely numbered now ?

Not a chance. We need it more than ever now

Hampton · Jan 11, 2022

Clive said:
I think it actually make a lot of sense for nutrition to become more circular - be that using animal waste or human

Indeed surely true sustainability is impossible without that ? The days of synthetic nutrition are surely numbered now ?

However it must be done in environmentally safe and economically sound ways

I stopped taking sewage sludge when water companies decided they could charge me to dispose of their waste - the wrong way around IMO ....... I wanted them to pay me, sadly farmers have no unity or leadership so they just went to the next farmer that would pay them ! ........ This is what needs to change

I have spoken with @KatieMeehanST about this product, its sound very much still in development and she was keen to hear what farmers wanted ....... this is an opportunity to help them help us for mutual benefit maybe ? If we want paying to take waste then let's make that clear ......... however I suspect the first farmer to see a product more economic than synthetic N will break that just as is the case with sludge

I stopped taking sludge from Severn Trent.
I will take it in future if they pay me.
I currently take cleaned river silt from south staffs water which they pay me to take.

farmerm · Jan 11, 2022

Steevo said:
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.

To a greater or lesser extent sludge gets hauled all over the country too... if eventually all sludge went through the process it would end up being transported no further than sludge whist being perhaps 40% lighter without the water content. For most farms the sewage works is a lot closer than the docks too....

I would expect properly calibrated twin discs should spread the pellets at least as accurately as a muck spreader can spread sludge, even if that might mean putting it on to stubbles at 12m rather than 24 or 36...

We really can not afford to pee P and K out to sea, we do need to recover as much as possible.

However I do share the concerns of many commentator here. The NPK is all welcome but its all the other difficult chemicals and microplastics that give concern around any applications of recovered sewage be they sludge or pelleted sludge. Independent analysis is really important.

I do like the suggestion that if ST are confident in the safely profile the best route would be give the product for free to farmers in catchments with water quality problems...

Growers should expect to pay for high purity crop nutrients but landowners should be paid and paid very well when providing a commercial waste disposal service.

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

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