{"id":13587,"date":"2022-04-12T09:00:54","date_gmt":"2022-04-12T08:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.innovationnewsnetwork.com\/?p=13587"},"modified":"2022-04-12T08:55:21","modified_gmt":"2022-04-12T07:55:21","slug":"developing-organic-nitrogen-fertiliser-enhance-agriculture-production","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.innovationnewsnetwork.com\/developing-organic-nitrogen-fertiliser-enhance-agriculture-production\/13587\/","title":{"rendered":"Developing organic nitrogen fertiliser to enhance agriculture production"},"content":{"rendered":"
Currently, the global agricultural industry is facing challenges with deteriorating soil health. In order to combat this, Australian scientists are exploring the manufacture of a sustainable organic nitrogen fertiliser composed of aquatic cyanobacterial biomass, which is suitable for severely damaged areas that are dependent on chemical fertilisers.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany soils are degraded and becoming less fertile. This challenges agriculture to produce sufficient high-quality food to feed the continuously growing population, which is further exacerbated by climatic instability threatening crop production,\u201d explained Flinders University<\/a> researcher Associate Professor Kirsten Heimann.<\/p>\n Joining the Flinders researchers, US and European scientists are now assessing the functionality of a novel biofertiliser comprised of very fast-growing freshwater cyanobacterium Tolypothrix<\/em>, which is capable of fixing nitrogen from the atmosphere without necessitating further nitrogen fertilisation. This, therefore, makes the biomass far cheaper to produce in comparison to alternative microalgal and macroalgal biofertilisers.<\/p>\n The research group has discovered that it is possible to cultivate this kind of non-toxic blue-green algae in freshwater, as well as in somewhat saline or industrial wastewater like that from coal-fired power stations; capturing biofuel could also be used to balance out the cost of production.<\/p>\n This form of non-toxic blue-green algae can be cultivated in freshwater and even slightly saline or industrial wastewater such as from coal-fired power stations, the research team has found. Capturing biofuel may also be used to offset production costs.<\/p>\n Energy inputs to produce Tolypothrix<\/em> biomass can be offset by generating biogas, which is a methane-rich gas for drying the biomass to extract high-value health supplement phycocyanin or to produce carbon and nitrogen-rich liquid and solid biofertilisers to remediate soil infertility.<\/p>\nBiofertiliser from cyanobacteria<\/h3>\n
Biological soil enhancement<\/h3>\n