SE545384C2 - Nutrition composition, method of manufacturing the nutrition composition, and method of growing plants - Google Patents

Abstract

A method of manufacturing a nutrition composition for cultivation of plants. The method comprises extracting (304) nutrients from processed (302) plant-parts, collecting (308) sludge originating from animal farming, and mixing (314) the extracted nutrients with the collected sludge to a mixture. The nutrition composition comprises the mixture of the extracted nutrients and the collected sludge.The nutrition composition may be produced locally at an aquaponics arrangement. By taking care of rest products locally, an appropriate nutrition balance could be achieved for the cultivation beds. In addition, needs for artificially produced fertilizers will be reduced, which enables in a more environmentally friendly production of food.

Description

NUTRITION COMPOSITION, METHOD OF MANUFACTURING THE NUTRITION COMPOSITION, AND METHOD OF GROWING PLANTS Technical field This disclosure relates to farrning, especially to manufacturing and use of nutrition compositions in aquaponic systems.

Background Production of food for humans and animals is crucial for the human population on earth.

With a growing population there is a need for increasing the amount of food to feed people. One solution for extending the growing season is to invest in solutions for achieving better growing conditions by arranging greenhouses where plants and crops are grown. Other solutions are to use artificial fertilizers and pesticides.

Use of artificial fertilizers and pesticides cause negative environmental effects and contribute to pollution and increases risks for allergies and diseases for humans and animals.

In addition, artificial cultivation requires substantial amounts of water for irrigation.

Food production also comprises feeding of animals, for production of various meat and other animal food like eggs, cheese, and milk. Fish farrning is mainly performed at sea in large net pens. For instance, when farrning salmon in fjords, the fish is feed with pellets. Unconsumed pellets together with excrements and faeces from the fish causes nutritional leakage to the water of the sea, with following decreased oxygen level in the seawater.

Aquaponic food production is an environmentally friendly solution where cultivation of vegetables and fish farrning are combined. In aquaponic food production, fish are farrned on land in containers or tanks. Fresh water is added to the fish tanks and an outflow of nutritious water is diverted away from the fish tanks. The outflow of nutritious water is fed to cultivation beds where the plants are grown and fertilizes the plants.

Continuously, fresh water is fed to the fishes and the nutritious outflow water is fed to the cultivation beds. The plants make use of nutrients, e.g. originating from fish excrements and consume some amount of the outflow water too. The outflow of nutritious water from the fish production units is fed to the plants in an amount which matches their needs.

Thus, the plants receive a substantial proportion of their needed nutrients from water rejected from the fish farm. The resulting environmental effect of this is double, first the need for using artificial fertilizers is decreased, and nutrients from the fish farm do not pollute the sea or local water sources like lakes, and rivers. It is well known that production of artificial fertilizers consumes a lot of energy and destroys natural environments.

The only water that needs to be added to the system is the amount transpired by the plants each day. This outflow of water and nutrients from the fish farm in tums allows for continuous feeding of the fish.

Aquaponic systems are mainly of two kinds: coupled or decoupled. In a "coupled aquaponic system", also referred to as single-loop system, nutritious water from the fish tanks is cleaned by the plants, as their roots obtains the nutrition from the water when the plants grew. The cleaned water is retumed to the fish-tanks. However, single-loop systems have some drawbacks, and it can be a challenge to achieve optimal balance in the waterflows, as well for cultivation of plants, but also for the fish. Therefore, suitable filtering steps will typically be installed, and various additives be applied.

Another kind of system that has been developed are "decoupled aquaponic systems", also referred to as multi-loop systems. In a decoupled system, no cleaned water is retumed to the fish-tanks, instead the cleaned water is recirculated to the grow beds such that further nutrition that still remains in the water could be obtained. The plants transpire water vapour that is ventilated to the atmosphere. As a constant flow of nutritious water is fed from the fish- tanks to the plants, the same amount of freshwater will be added to the fish-tanks. As all freshwater originates from rain, the atmosphere could be seen as illustrating an indirect transport from the plants to the fishes.

When growing plants, it is common to add nutrients to improve growing conditions and to give rise to high production. Nutrients can be provided to the plants as manure originating from animal farrning, or as artificially manufactured chemical fertilizers. Typically, nutrients as N, Nitrogen; P, Phosphorous; K, Potassium are added.

With reference to Figure 1 that is a schematic illustration, a cultivation arrangement will now be described in accordance with existing art.

The cultivation arrangement in this example is an aquaponics arrangement comprising a cultivation bed 120 and a fish-tank 124. Plants are growing in the cultivation bed 120 to produce fruits or vegetables 122, here illustrated by tomatoes. In the fish-tank 124 fishes are fed to produce fish meat 126. Nutritious water 128 are continuously fed from the fish-tank 124 to the cultivation bed 120 to fertilize the plants, as they both need water and nutrients to grew. The plants in the cultivation bed 120 captures nutrients from the nutritious waterand clean the Water. In coupled aquaponics systems the cleaned Water Was then retumed to the fish-tanks 124. However, in decoupled aquaponics systems, the cleaned Water is instead fed back to the cultivation beds 120. The outflow of Water that finally leaves the cultivation beds 120 is in forrn of Water vapour 130 to the atmosphere as the plants transpire. The loss of Water in the fish-tanks 124 is instead compensated by f1lling fresh Water 132. The outfloW of Water vapour 130 from the cultivation beds 120 together With the fresh Water filling the fish-tanks 124 could be seen as an indirect flow via the atmosphere.

Except the flows of nutritious Water 128 and the indirect floW of Water vapour 130 and fresh Water 132, fish 126 and fruits or vegetables 122 leaves the system, and fish food 134 and nutrients 136 are added to the aquaponics arrangement.

Even if nutritious Water is fed from the fish tanks to the cultivation beds, the levels of various nutrients in the Water may not be optimal for all high plant production and yield, especially conceming fruiting plants Which have very high nutrient demands. Today, it is common, that various artificially manufactured fertilizers are added to establish a desired balance of nutrients, such as e. g. Nitrogen, Phosphor and Potassium.

It is a challenge to improve growing conditions to increase harvests in cultivation systems.

Summary It would be desirable to improve growing conditions in cultivation systems. It is an object of this disclosure to address at least one of the issues outlined above.

Further there is an object to provide a mechanism that achieves an appropriate balance of nutrients locally and reduces use of artificial fertilizers. These objects may be met by an arrangement according to the attached independent claims.

According to a first aspect, a method of manufacturing a nutrition composition for cultivation of plants, based on organic aquaponics rest products comprising plant-parts and sludge from animal farrning is provided. The method comprises processing of the plant-parts by at least one action of: grinding, stamping, squeezing, and mashing the plant-part, where the plant-parts comprise at least one of leafs, stalks, roots, and vegetables. Furthermore, the method comprises extracting nutrients from processed plant-parts in form of plant-juice, ferrnenting the plant-juice, collecting the sludge, and mixing the ferrnented plant-juice with the collected sludge to a mixture. The nutrition composition comprises the mixture of the extracted nutrients and the collected sludge.

The sludge may comprise faeces from animals and be pasteurised by being heated up. The sludge may be ensilaged by adding an acid, such as e. g. Acetic acid, CHgCOOH, or Forrnic acid, HCOOH. The sludge may originate from farrning of fish, shell-f1sh, shrimps, etc.

According to a second aspect, a nutrition composition for cultivation of plants based on organic aquaponic rest products is provided. The nutrition composition comprises a mixture of nutrients extracted from processed plant-parts and sludge originating from animal farrning. The nutrition composition may be manufactured by a method of an above described aspect, and be in wet or dry form, e. g. in form of a liquid, a powder or a paste.

According to a third aspect, a method of growing plants is provided. The method comprises arranging cultivation beds with plants, feeding water to the cultivation beds and adding a nutrition composition of any above described aspects as a fertilizer to the cultivation beds. The method may be performed in an aquaponics, and the nutrition composition may be manufactured from rest products of the aquaponics, such as plant-parts and animal sludge.

By taking care of rest products locally, an appropriate nutrition balance could be achieved for the cultivation beds. In addition, needs for artificially produced fertilizers will be reduced, which enables in a more environmentally friendly production of food.

Brief description of drawings The solution will now be described in more detail by means of exemplifying embodiments and with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure l is a schematic illustration of an aquaponics arrangement in accordance with existing art.

Figure 2 is a schematic illustration of a cultivation arrangement, according to possible embodiments.

Figure 3 is a schematic flowchart illustrating a method of manufacturing a nutrition composition, according to possible embodiments.

Figure 4 is a schematic flowchart illustrating a method of using a nutrition composition, according to possible embodiments.

Detailed description As illustrated above, when producing food in aquaponic arrangements, both fish meat and vegetables are resulting products that leaves the aquaponics arrangement. To enable the growth of plants and fish, nutrition, freshwater, and fish food are added to the aquaponic arrangement. The aquaponic arrangement gives rise to rest products as sludge from the fish- farrning and plant-parts from cultivation of plants. The rest products have to be removed and taken care of. Both the sludge and the plant-parts, like leafs, stalks, roots and defect fruits, are nutritious, and by removing these rest products, nutrition leaves the aquaponics arrangement. In addition, both transporting away the rest products for destruction, and producing artificial fertilizers to replace the lost nutrients of the rest products, consume energy and environmental resources which give rise to pollution. There should therefore be of interest that the nutrition that leaves the system could be taken care of locally. For small aquaponic arrangements, composts of mulch arrangements could be arranged, but for larger aquaponics arrangements that kind of locally recirculation of nutrition in a compost or mulch would require to large areas as the processes are relatively slow. The resulting soil from a compost arrangement is also not always optimal for artificial cultivation when plants grew in altemative cultivation beds, e. g. based on gravel or water instead of soil.

Below we will now describe a method for producing a nutrition composition locally, in conjunction with some exemplifying embodiments.

With reference to Figure 2, which is a scheniatic overview, an aquaponic arrangenient where a nutritious coniposition is nianufactured will now be described in conjunction with some exeniplifying enibodinients.

As seen the aquaponic arrangenient of this enibodinient is based on the aquaponic arrangenient described with reference to figure 1, and similar reference numbers will therefore be applied to facilitate the understanding and for eniphasizing the inventive differences.

The fish-tank 224 corresponds to the fish-tank 124 in figure 1, and the cultivation bed 220 correspond to the cultivation bed 120 in figure 1, etc.

Plants are growing in the cultivation bed 220 to produce fruits or vegetables 222, here illustrated by toniatoes. In the fish-tank 224 fishes are fed to produce fish nieat 226. Nutritious water 228 are continuously fed froni the fish-tank 224 to the cultivation bed 220 to fertilize the plants, as they both need water and nutrients to grow. The plants in the cultivation bed 220 captures nutrients froni the nutritious water 228 and clean the water. An outflow of water occurs that finally leaves the cultivation beds 220 is in forrn of water vapour 230 to the atniosphere as the plants transpire. The loss of water in the fish-tanks 224 is instead conipensated by filling fresh water Correspondingly, to the process described with reference to figure 1, the flows of nutritious water 228 and the indirect flow of water vapour 230 and fresh water 232, fish 226 and fruits or vegetables 222 leaves the systeni, and fish food 234 is added to the aquaponics arrangenient. However, in this enibodinient, the nutrients originate froni a locally nianufactured nutrient coniposition 206 instead of artificial fertilizers.

The organic rest products, fish-sludge 204 and plant-parts 202 are processed, and the result is the nutrient coniposition 206. The processes for nianufacturing the nutrient coniposition will be further described in niore detail, below and in conjunction with sonie enibodinients.

A related exeniplifying enibodinient of the nutrition coniposition 206 that is illustrated in figure 2, coniprises a niixture originating froni aninial sludge, and processed plant-parts. The nutrition coniposition 206 niay be provided in various forrn, e.g. in wet forrn as a liquid to be added to the nutritious water 228, in dry forrn as a powder to be dissolved in the nutritious water 228, or as paste. The wet forrn is easier to adniinistrate to the plants, but the dry forrn niay facilitate long tinie storage and be niore convenient to transport.

With reference to Figure 3, which is a schematic flowchart, a method of manufacturing a nutrition composition for cultivation of plants will now be described in accordance with some exemplifying embodiments.

In an action 304, nutrients are extracted from processed plant-parts. Processing the plant-parts resulted in plant-juice and f1bres, and the action 304 of extracting the nutrients may be conducted by separating and capturing the plant-juice. The plant-juice is rich of Nitrogen, N, and Potassium, K. The plant-parts may have been processed in advance or be an optional initial action 302 of the method of manufacturing the nutrition composition. The optional action 302 of processing the plant-parts will be defined below in conjunction with an altemative exemplifying embodiment.

In another action 308, sludge originating from animal farrning is collected. In this embodiment, the sludge is mechanically filtered from the fish-tanks. The sludge may comprise animal faeces, or excrements. For a fish-farm, such nutritious sludge is aggregated at the bottom of fish-tanks and may be collected therefrom by filters and sludge collecting devices. The animal sludge may also originate from other water-living animals, such as shrimps, shell-f1sh, etc. However, even if fish-farming is a suitable branch, the inventive concept may be applied for other types of animal farrning. Manure from the animals is then an instance of animal sludge.

In a following action 314, the extracted nutrients and the collected sludge is mixed into a mixture. The mixture may me further processed or have various additives added within the disclosed inventive concept.

It is to be noted that the above described embodiments may be altematively implemented to achieve further advantages. Some altemative or complementing actions or processes will now be described according to embodiments based on the above described one.

In an initial action 302, which is performed before extraction of nutrients 304, the processing of the plant-parts is a part of the method of manufacturing the nutrition composition. Plant-parts, like leafs, stalks, roots, or defect or old fruits and vegetables are grinded, chopped, cut, squeezed, mashed, or stomped, etc. to press the plant-juice out of the plant-parts. Ideally, the plant-juice is separated from the f1bres of the plant-parts and the result is the nutritious plant-juice and a dry f1bre cake. The f1bre cake may of course be further processed to extract further nutrition therefrom, e. g. by buming and making use of the ashes.

Thus, the action of processing plant-parts 302 may be a part of the method of manufacturing the nutrition composition, but is not limited thereto, as the processing of plant-parts may be performed in advance.

Furthermore, in another optional action 306, that may be performed after the extraction of nutrients 304, the extracted plant-juice is ferrnented to prevent growth of mold, etc. Amounts of microorganisms and sugar are added to containers with plant-juice, and the containers are kept Warm for some days. Preferably, the containers are dark to prevent light from entering the plant-juice, or the containers may be kept in a dark environment. As ferrnenting gases are formed during ferrnentation, the containers may have arrangements for releasing gases to a controlled pressure. For instance, loose arranged lids may enable formed ferrnentation gases to leave the containers.

Moreover, in another optional action 3 l0, that may be performed after collecting 308 animal sludge, the animal sludge may be pasteurized to reduce odours and destroy microorganisms. Typically, the sludge is heated to a temperature between +50 and +90 °C, preferably between +60 and +80 °C, and more preferably about +70 °C. This process is to prefer, both for achieving healthier and convenient working conditions for staff, but also to minimize risks for spreading diseases from fish.

Another optional action 312, that may be performed on the collected 308 animal sludge, but also on the sludge after being pasteurized is to ensilaging the animal sludge, by adding an appropriate acid for digesting the animal sludge, i.e. to break down unwanted micro-organisms, but also for controlling the pH-level. The acid will also facilitate that particles from faeces will be dissolved. A beneficial ratio is to mix 60% Forrnic acid, HCOOH at a ratio of 0.3:10. But also other suitable weak or strong acids may be used in appropriate ratios when appropriate, e. g. Acetic acid, CHgCOOH; or Forrnic acid, HCOOH, Nitric acid, HNOg; Hydrochloric acid, HCl; or Sulphuric acid, H2SO4. When ensilaging, the with acid treated sludge is kept some days in a closed container to form a homogeneous grey silage, that then is dried to a nutritious powder. This powder is rich of Phosphorus, P, Calcium, Ca, and various micronutrients. The ensilage may also be further pasteurized for further preservation. It is also to be noted that even if the silage is dried to a powder in this embodiment, the inventive concept is not limited thereto. Altematively, the silage may be kept in liquid or paste form.

As defined, even if both the optional actions of pasteurizing 3 l0, and ensilaging 312, are benef1cial to apply, they are not dependent on each other and the method of manufacturing the nutrition composition may be performed by applying anyone, or both of them, without limitation.

Hereabove, methods for manufacturing a nutrition composition, and the corresponding manufactured nutrition composition have been described. Below, also a method of using the defined nutrition composition will be defined.

With reference to Figure 4, which is a schematic flowchart, a method of growing plants will now be described in accordance with one exemplifying embodiment.

In an initial action 402, cultivation beds are arranged. For instance, a plurality of cultivation beds are arranged in a greenhouse or in an outdoor field. The cultivation beds comprise soil or similar substance in which the plants are planted to grew. The cultivation beds may be boxes or ground where vegetables, fruit, herbs or cereals are cultivated. In the case of vegetables fruiting plants of e. g. tomatoes, pepper, or cucumber are examples of suitable plant types.

In subsequent action 404, the cultivation beds are watered to feed the plants to grew.

In a following action 406, a nutrition composition is added to the cultivation beds. The nutrition composition is based on processed plant-parts, and sludge from animal farrning from which the nutritious plant juice has been extracted. Both the nutrition composition itself and a method for manufacturing the nutrition composition have been describe above in conjunction with some embodiments.

In a related exemplifying embodiment, which is based on the above described one, the method is performed in an aquaponic arrangement that comprises the cultivation beds, but also a fish-tank for fish-farming, the water fed 404 to the cultivation beds originates from the fish-tanks and is nutritious, but the balance of nutrients may not be optimal for the plants. By manufacturing the nutrition composition from rest-products of the aquaponic arrangement, like plant-parts and fish-sludge, an optimally balanced nutrition additive is achieved that will improve growth of the plants, and fruit, i.e. contribute to increased harvests.

Reference throughout the specification to "one embodiment" or "an embodiment" is used to mean that a particular feature, structure or characteristic described in connection with an embodiment is included in at least one embodiment.

Thus, the appearance of the expressions "in one embodiment" or "in an embodiment" in various places throughout the specification are not necessarily referring to the same embodiment. Further, the particular features, structures or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in one or several embodiments. Although the present invention has been described above With reference to specific embodiments, it is not intended to be limited to the specific forrn set forth herein. Rather, the invention is limited only by the accompanying claims and other embodiments than the specific above are equally possible Within the scope of the appended claims. Moreover, it should be appreciated that the terms "comprise/comprises" or "include/includes", as used herein, do not exclude the presence of other elements or steps. Furthermore, although individual features may be included in different claims, these may possibly advantageously be combined, and the inclusion of different claims does not imply that a combination of features is not feasible and/or advantageous. In addition, singular references do not exclude a plurality. Finally, reference signs in the claims are provided merely as a clarifying example and should not be construed as limiting the scope of the claims in any Way. The scope is generally defined by the following independent claims. Exemplifying embodiments are defined by the dependent claims.

Claims (1)

1.Claims Method of manufacturing a nutrition composition for cultivation of plants, based on »äs :šorganic :am _s__rest products comprising plant-parts, and sludge originating from animal farrning, the method comprising: processing (3 02) of the plant-parts by at least one action of: grinding, stamping, squeezing and mashing the plant-parts, the plant-parts comprising at least one of: leafs, stalks, roots, and Vegetables, extracting (3 04) nutrients from the processed (3 02) plant-partsgåg; collecting (308) the sludge, and mixing (3 l4) the :ex-f collected sludge to a mixture, the nutrition composition comprising the mixture of the extracted nutrients and the collected sludge. išfflšgilThe method according to claim 1»~\'»æs1»1lš, Wherein, the collected (308) sludge comprises faeces from animals, and the method comprises pasteurizing (3 l0) the collected sludge before being mixed (314) With the extracted (302) nutrients, by being heated to a temperature in a range from +50 °C to +90 °C, preferably in a range of +60 °C to +°C, and more preferably to a temperature about +70 °C, The method according to claim lesfillfi, Wherein, the collected (308) sludge comprises faeces from animals, and the method comprises ensilaging (3 l2) the collected sludge before being mixed (3 l4) With the extracted (304) nutrients, by adding at least one acid from a set of: CHgCOOH, Acetic acid; HCOOH, Forrnic acid, HNOg; Nitric acid; HCl, Hydrochloric acid; and H2SO4, Sulphuric acid.' The method according to any of the claims l to Wherein the sludge originates from farrning of at least one of: fish, shell-fish, and shrimps. nutrition composition (206) for cultivation of plants, Wherein the nutrition špggnrest products comprising composition (206) is based on šflæfsaašsorganic processed plant-parts and sludge from animal farrning, the nutrition composition comprising a mixture of: 0 nutrients extracted from the processed plant-parts (202), and s* the sludge (204) . šš~_¿§§,,The nutrition composition according to 1:sludge (204) comprises faeces from animals and Was pasteurized before being mixed With the nutrients, by being heated to a temperature in a range from +50 °C to +90 °C, preferably in a range of +60 °C to +80 °C, and more preferably to a temperature about +70 °C. The nutrition composition according to L “f ' »VM Wherein the sludge (204) Was ensilaged before being mixed, by adding at least one acid from a set of: CHgCOOH, Acetic acid; HCOOH, Forrnic acid, HNOg; Nitric acid; HCl, Hydrochloric acid; and H2SO4, Sulphuric acid. The nutrition composition according to any of the claims to Wherein the sludge originates from farrning of at least one of: fish, shell-fish, and shrimps. A method of growing plants, comprising: 0 arranging (402) cultivation beds With plants, 0 feeding (404) Water to cultivation beds, and 0 adding (406) a nutrition composition according to any of the claims as fertilizer to the cultivation beds. The method according to claim perforrned in an aquaponics arrangement comprising the cultivation beds and at least one fish-tank configured for fish-farming, the Water fed (404) to the cultivation beds originating from the fish-tanks. The method according to claim Wherein the plants are selected to produce at least one of: Vegetables, fruit, herbs, or cereals.