Fertiliser production from FOGO proceeds in a carbon negative manufacturing rhythm, writes David Murphy of the Universal Greening Group.
It’s all over in just 10 days: FOGO converted into best quality biological fertiliser.
The first stage converts the FOGO into compost, with one tonne of compost blending into three tonnes of biological fertiliser – a faithful reproduction of the fabled Terra Preta soils of the Amazon Basin. An actual living, breathing fertiliser that is teeming with biological life.
This Australian Terra Preta® will be sold as a solid for spreading by any standard fertiliser spreader or as a liquid which can be sprayed out by a simple firefighter pump.
The liquid can also be dehydrated, which can be transported huge distances at minimal freight cost.
The basic forms of Terra Preta® perform different functions, complimentary to each other and resulting in enhanced robust, vigorous, plant growth in soil. This in turn develops genuine sustainable properties and an inherent resistance to plant pests and diseases.
DOBAS is the process name, and owned by The Universal Greening Group. DOBAS is the acronym for
Dynamically Oxygenated Biologically Assisted System and it’s all carried out indoors in a fertiliser manufacturing factory. DOBAS is an intensely aerobic process, free of any unpleasant odour.
The treatment area is compact.
A FOGO processing plant of 500 tonne per day would require a Clean Room of around 1000 square metres, a fraction of the area needed by a simple outdoor composter receiving the same volume of FOGO.
The rest of the space is given over to blending the compost with minerals, bio-char and carbohydrates to make the basic bio-fertiliser. Specific minerals can easily be added, providing for any particular soil deficiencies or chosen crop demands.
There are significant benefits to processing indoors, such as:
– No unsightly litter.
– The adverse influence of the weather on product quality and delivery schedules is also removed.
– The ability to take delivery of contracted quantities of FOGO in all weather conditions.
– Fertiliser production proceeds in a manufacturing rhythm, with no stop/start caused by changes in weather.
DOBAS is similar to row composting, but is neither open nor is it a windrow system. Not only that, but the DOBAS biology, robotic processing machine and Clean Room setup are all integral tools in the efficiency and effectiveness of the composting process.
While the DOBAS processing machine will compost anything in any location, take it out of the Clean Room and efficiency declines significantly. A Singapore-based early version of a DOBAS processing machine, operating outdoors can be viewed here.
There the DOBAS Machine processes 200 tonnes per day, of green waste, every day but Sunday.
In just 10 days, a starting carbon to nitrogen ratio of 100 or more is transformed into a ratio of 20-22.
The latest developments were patented only in May, and already Universal Greening (India) is up and running.
Of considerable environmental benefit, not only is the production of methane averted by diversion from landfill to this alternative treatment, but the total processing is climate positive.
As the reader will know, there are two gases produced in composting – steam and carbon dioxide.
The double environmental benefit in DOBAS is not only by way of diversion from landfill, but the fact that the CO2 generated is harvested and sequestered. Another environmental positive is that each factory will have its own WtE plant generating its own power.
The process is carbon negative, with no fossil fuels used in production.
And wherever the Terra Preta products are used, a carbon sink is created by stimulated photosynthesis.
Any farmer using Terra Preta® products will find that after around five years – other factors being OK – they will no longer need fertiliser in full doses, just a minor top-up. As such, the farmer will no longer be dependent on buying fertilisers.
Frequent applications of Terra Preta® over say, five years, will establish a profile showing dark soil to a depth of over 600 millimetres.
That is the fertility bank plants can draw on in established bio-farmed soils. Research has shown that these fertility banks will continue to grow at a rate of around 0.4 centimetres per year.
One reason bio-fertilisers are stable in the soil is because of the biochar in the blend. Biochar can have a surface area of 500m2 per gram.
It’s full of caves and covered with nooks, hooks and craggy places, which makes it hard to displace and also store any soluble minerals awaiting demand from the plants.
It provides places in which bacteria can glue themselves with polysaccharides. Bacteria are the richest source of nitrogen on the planet, with a C:N of only five.
The system is designed so that the bacteria convert water insoluble minerals to the plant-available form at a ‘just-in-time’ rate, so that the plants grow vigorously but proportionately.
We don’t want to see all growth go into stalk and leaves with no fruit or grain forming. So, things are set so that only some of the bacteria will die fairly soon after application of the Terra Preta, to give the plants a kick start.
As the bacteria consume all the available food and start to die, they replicate themselves against the time when food becomes available again, and then ‘die’. These animals, the great decomposers of the world, decompose rapidly and give out carbon dioxide and nitrogen.
Nitrifying bacteria in the soil convert the nitrogen to nitrate, the form in which it is absorbed by plants.
Some of the CO2 is absorbed by the soil moisture to form carbonic acid which is around pH 6.8 – near neutral. This helps to maintain the soil as a good growth environment for crops.
The rest gradually percolates up through the soil and on breaking free, is captured by the stomata underneath the leaves of the plants.
If there is nitrate present around the roots – and we just showed there is – there is photosynthesis, and plant growth supplemental CO2 is drawn from the air.
Azotobacters in the Universal Greening Terra Preta bacterial community draw additional atmospheric nitrogen from the air, which is inaccessible to plants, and release it in the form of ammonium ions into the soil, if required. We live in a sea of nitrogen – we breathe 78 per cent nitrogen – why buy it when nature supplies it free?
Terra Preta works so well because the compost in the blend has the very important soil benevolent bacteria in elevated numbers.
It is because these populations are so high that the DOBAS compost can be used successfully as a base for making an effective biological fertiliser.
Ordinary compost just won’t cut it.
At present there are around 3000 biological and 140,000 conventional farmers in Australia. All are able to use this Bio-fertiliser and will improve their bottom line by doing so.
The market is infinite and if that’s not enough, there’s export of the bio-fert, technology, plant and management regime.
The Terra Preta system provides a clear pathway towards achievement of the Cool Soil initiative for emissions reduction in agriculture.
For more information click here.
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