Innovative Technology for the Production of Ecologically Harmless Prolonged Fertilizers by the use of Microorganisms
Project Status: 3 Approved without Funding
Duration in months: 36 months
Objective
Intense population growth requires increased food production. By contrast, farmlands are gradually disappearing due to growing urbanization and intensification of industry. One solution to this problem of a decreasing food supply is the use of intensive agricultural technologies such as chemical fertilizers, especially those containing nitrogen. According to the present day data, all over the world annually more than 200 million tons of nitrogen fertilizers are introduced into soil. However, due to the especially high solubility of nitrogen fertilizers, a large proportion of their application is lost to leaching and evaporation. This economic loss is accompanied by global environmental pollution, such as the contamination of reservoirs, rivers, ground waters, lakes, seas, etc., and by pollution of upper layers of the atmosphere where evaporated substances destroy the ozone layer, thus creating dangerous ecological conditions for human beings (metagemaglobogenia and etc.) and fauna. The development of ecologically harmless and profitable fertilizers is crucial to our livelihood. Such technology will enable us to substitute soluble chemically-produced nitrogen fertilizers by polymerized and biological nitrogen, used simultaneously.
The present Project will develop such technology by creating multi-component compositions consisting of nitrogen-fixing bacteria. Such a fertilizer would decrease significantly (by 50-60%) the amount of nitrogen fertilizers required for optimal plant growth. The proposed nitrogen fertilizer would have a prolonged action.
For degradation of the structured carbamide we ,ll perform modernization of fermentative device of microorganisms, its modification and adaptation to the new nutrient substrate. Amide groups of carbamide can be masked and as a result of it can be inaccessible for ferments characterized by urease activity. Therefore it is necessary to destroy polymer carcass by the use of other microorganisms, which either release themselves ammonium ions or make accessible amide groups for microorganisms with ureasic activity. In this case cometabolic degradation of polymers will take place.
To implement the Project the following tasks will be resolved:
- Study of the mechanism of carbamide structuring (polymerization, polycondensation); investigation of the process of formation of macromolecules of linear and spatial structure;
- Study of the process of synthesis and development of technology for obtaining nitrogenous fertilizers of prolonged action;
- development of technology for obtaining structured nitrogen fertilizers of prolonged action;
- obtaining and propagation of cultures of nitrogen-fixing bacteria;
- realization of step-wise adaptation of microorganisms possessing ureasive activity - to polymers;
- initiation of degradation of structured polymers by the use of associations of microorganisms of soil. Exposure of a leading ring of degradation and differentiation of degradation agents of polymer carcass;
- elaboration of complex technology for microbial binding of molecular nitrogen and degradation of prolonged action nitrogen-containing synthetic fertilizers;
- carrying out vegetation experiments;
- development of practical recommendations with the view of commercialization of obtained results.
Nitrogen-fixing micro-organisms and structured nitrogen fertilizer used in compositions will help protect the environment from global pollution and will decrease agrotechnical norms of nitrogen fertilizers by approximately 50-60%, at the expense of application of nitrogenous fertilizers of prolonged action and its partial substitution by biological nitrogen, with relevant economic effect. Productivity potentially will increase by up to 20-30%.
Participating Institutions
LEADING
P. Melikishvili Institute of Physical and Organic Chemistry
COLLABORATOR
Universite Montpellier / Laboratoire d'Etude des Materiauux Polymeres
COLLABORATOR
University of North Texas / Department of Materials Science
