The circular economy and agriculture: new opportunities for re-using Phosphorus as fertilizer

Michele Vollaro, Francesco Galioto and Davide Viaggi

Bio-based and Applied Economics Journal, 2017, vol. 05, issue 3

Abstract: The increasing demand of phosphorus (P) worldwide is posing important challenges on the market stability of fertilizers. Extracting more P would not guarantee high P quality and low prices. Globally, only the European Commission, in a recent document about the Circular Economy strategy, has begun to address the challenge of the dependence on phosphate rock. Based on a simple circular economy theoretical framework, this paper proposes an impact analysis of the use of recycled P as a substitute of chemical P fertilizers. Two new technologies applied to retrofit existing wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) are considered: Moving-Bed Bio-Reactors and Struvite Crystallization Modules. The analyses indicate that the introduction of these technologies prove to be economically sustainable for specific levels of inhabitant equivalent (IE) and that the profitability of struvite, as a substitute of chemical P, increases with increasing levels of P fertilizer prices and for increasing sizes of WWTPs.

Keywords: Environmental Economics and Policy; Land Economics/Use; Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies; Resource/Energy Economics and Policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:aieabj:276280

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.276280

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