Our society is teeming with bioresources, such as various types of biomasses and organic waste, that often go underutilized. This challenge invites you to explore how we can turn these resources into high-quality biofertilizers while addressing one big obstacle: pollutants.

Anaerobic digestion is a powerful process for producing biogas and digestate, but the presence of PFAs in the digestate has raised concerns. These substances can limit the use of digestate as biofertilizer, leading to reduced soil health and circularity. Your challenge will be to examine the current landscape, identify barriers, and propose smart strategies to make digestate safer and more effective for biofertilizer production. More specifically, you will identify ways of dealing with digestate with relatively high amounts of PFAs, define strategies to minimize its presence in the biofertilizer, and propose concrete solutions for their presence in digestate.

Collaborate with industry experts from Biototal, engage in interdisciplinary research, and present your innovative solutions to stakeholders. This challenge-based learning experience promises to be both intellectually stimulating and practically impactful, driving sustainable development and helping the agriculture sector transition to a sustainable future.

The challenge includes a face-to-face (F2F) week at Linköping University (LiU) in Sweden. During the F2F week, you will get the opportunity to engage with some of the most advanced biogas and biofertilizer production systems in the world and with researchers in Biogas, biofertilizer and PFAs. You will interact directly with the challenge provider, visit state-of-the art biogas research facilities, and get a tour of a full-scale biogas plant at Tekniska Verken AB in Linköping.

Join us and be part of the solution!