P2 GreeN

The project

P2GreeN aims to shift from a linear agri-food supply chain to a circular material flow system between urban and rural areas. The project will focus on N&P recovery solutions to convert human sanitary waste into safe bio-based fertilizers, closing nutrient cycles and reducing mineral fertilizer usage. It will be demonstrated in 3 pilot regions and extended to other regions in Europe. P2GreeN will support a circular and clean economy, and enable policy makers to replicate its sustainable models. The project involves co-creation strategies and harmonized governance frameworks to foster innovation.

P2GreeN will foster a paradigm shift, from a linearly organised resource and nutrient system within the agri-food supply chain, towards a circular material flow system between urban and rural areas thereby restoring the coupling of the water-agri-food system using a holistic symbiotic resource management approach following the 3R principle “Reduce, Reuse, Recover”. P2GreeN will therefore develop new circular governance solutions for the transition from fork to farm to halt and eliminate N & P pollution by connecting blue urban with green rural infrastructure, focussing on circular nutrient flows of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P). This will be done trough implementation and demonstration of innovative N & P recovery solutions for the utilisation of human sanitary waste from urban settlements and its conversion into safe bio-based fertilisers for agricultural production in three pilot regions (P2GreeN pilot regions) on a north-south trajectory from the Baltic Sea region via the metropolitan area of Hamburg-Hannover to the region of Axarquia in Southern Spain. This approach will be extended to the follower regions in Italy, France, Greece and Hungary.

P2GreeN will close nutrient cycles of N & P to foster the transition towards a circular and clean economy (green transition) as well as supporting sustainable food systems from farm to fork offering viable alternatives to reduce the current usage of mineral fertilisers with innovative Green bio-based fertilisers and thus minimise the pressure on the natural resources, specifically water and soil. P2GreeN will further enable policy makers to replicate P2GreeN’s sustainable regional circular economy models in all regional settings across Europe. To facilitate systemic change, co-creation strategies including the participation of all relevant stakeholders as well as harmonised governance frameworks that foster innovations will be key to P2GreeN.

In the framework of the project, IAAC team will develop a videogame for awareness raising to increase the societal acceptance of the new innovative P2GreeN solutions and a GIS-based simulation platform that will compute the most suitable locations for treatment plants in cities (based on parameters such as population density, Society Readiness Level of the population, etc.), and the amount of N&P that can be produced in a certain area (based on the amount of population).

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under grant agreement No° 101081883. “Preventing groundwater contamination and protecting its quality against harmful impacts of global and climate change”, Horizon Europe Innovation Action