PROJ/IPV/ID&I/019 • WASTECLEAN – Integração de desperdícios agroalimentares ricos em compostos fitoquímicos e bioativos numa agricultura
Principal Researcher:
José Luís Pereira
Duration: 2020 – 2022
Cised team members
Isabel Paula Lopes Brás
Maria Elisabete Ferreira Silva
Rui Pedro Duarte
Funding
CGD; PV
In the last decade sustainable agriculture has gained emphasis. For the development of this type of agriculture i tis necessary to look for agricultural practices that allow to improve the production and to reduce the negative impact on the environment. One of these practices is to reuse biowaste from agro-food production. Many of these residues are rich in phytochemical compounds (lignins, celluloses, hemicelluloses, polyphenols) which, when added to the soil, can improve it. However, the direct application of these residues to the soil can often induce toxicity problems, such as polyphenol-rich residues. Composting is a practice that can solve this problem. However, the composting process is also associated with increased greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), although this GHG emission is very dependent on the physical-chemical characteristics of the materials being composted.
Another biowaste of the agri-food production are the animal manures, particularly liquid slurry, that when applied directly to the soil can induce contaminations. Through this, high amounts of antibiotic resistant genes are released to the soil (and subsequently to the plants) and there is also the presence of hepatitis virus E. One way to value these slurries could be by applying carbonaceous (biochar), as it is indicated that the application of biochar could reduce amounts of these microbiological agents that could be transferred to the environment.
Thus, in the present project the main agricultural biowaste of the region (grape smash, olive branch and pruning) will be characterized according to the quantity of polyphenols, tannins, celluloses and hemicelluloses. The evolution of these compounds throughout the composting process will be also evaluated as well as the GHG emission and its relation with the chemical composition of the materials. The effect of applying the compost to the soil will be analysed in the development and production of a horticultural crop.
As a national region rich in animal production, it is also important to exploit the resulting biowaste, including the use of manure. It is imperative to use sanitary practices of the slurries to avoid soil contamination. Thus, we propose to evaluate the effect of biochar as a sanitation practice and at the same time evaluate its effectiveness in reducing GHG emissions.
