Mavitec Environmental is proud to participate in the PPP Circular Growth Media with EcoChar, a valuable by-product of Mavitec’s unique gasification process. In this Dutch initiative nine parties are joining forces to deploy new fibre products and organic residual products of high quality. EcoChar is an amazing product that can be used as soil improver. It still contains the mineral ash and fixed carbon, which offers great environmental advantages and economic value.
The market for growing media is developing rapidly worldwide. European potting soil companies are leading in both quality and cultivation knowledge. In order to build on this advantage, it is necessary that more peat substitutes come onto the market. Available alternatives are coconut products, wood products, fiber products such as grass and hemp and local organic waste streams. Without processing Dutch organic residual streams are usually unsuitable as a root medium, due to a too high salt load, too high acidity, light growth inhibiting substances and too low stability.
In the PPP Circular Growth Media nine parties have joined forces. By deploying their processing techniques together, it is possible to produce new fibre products and organic residual products of high quality. The Dutch market for growing media (4 million m3/year) is extensive and requires multiple solutions. That is why PPP includes four companies whose core business is the collection and processing of organic waste. Each company will focuss on different organic waste products and different markets.
The approach involves washing out and neutralizing compost and wood fiber by Attero. Stabilizing organic residues into low-salt biochar by Den Ouden and nutrient-rich EcoChar by Mavitec Environmental for outdoor cultivation. Binding of plant fibers into shape-retaining growing media is done by Terrafibre. The participating potting soil companies (Jiffy, BvB-Kekkilä and Pokon Naturado), will create optimal mixes of these products and offer them along with instructions to growers and consumers. The research companies Wageningen University & Research, business unit greenhouse horticulture, and TNO investigate specific questions. It suits the leading position of European potting soil companies that only qualitatively distinctive products are made.
For cultivation companies in greenhouse horticulture, a successful product means a more socially acceptable product. For arable farms, the use of stabilized organic matter means that the organic matter content of the soil is increased. As biochar is so stable, this counts as negative emissions of carbon dioxide. With these possibilities, the greenhouse horticulture sector contributes in various ways to social expectations and a more circular economy.
Mavitec Environmental’s EcoChar
Mavitec Group is specialized in creating high quality recycling systems. Mavitec finds and maximizes value from organic by-products, based on the commitment to taking by-products from one process and recycling them into valuable materials. Mavitec is one of the leaders in the rendering industry and also developed an innovative gasification system that converts various kinds of manure into green energy and high value EcoChar, the solid output of the gasification process. Gasification is an environmentally friendly technology in which pre-dried manure is heated in an oxygen-poor environment. The energy produced can be reused and at the end of this process EcoChar is created, a fertile soil improver in which all the valuable nutrients of the manure are preserved. EcoChar consists of high P and K (Mg or Ca) values, it can hold more than its own weight of water, is pathogen-free, dry and can be easily transported. Besides, EcoChar has a carbon-negative process Co2:C ratio (3:1). Because of these characteristics EcoChar will greatly improve soil fertility, lowers the amount of nutrients or fertilizer needed and reduce your carbon footprint. With is innovative gasification system Mavitec Environmental offers a smart and sustainable solution to the global manure problem and answer to the growing demand for fertile soils.
The four-year project is launched in June 2021.
