COMPOST+

COMPOST+ (“Research and application of biotechnological and chemical tools for the efficiency and sustainability of industrial composting of urban organic waste”) is a strategic project led at UMH by Dr Raúl Moral Herrero of CIAGRO-UMH and funded by the Valencian Institute for Competitiveness and Innovation (IVACE+i) with €171,499, co-financed by the ERDF.

The challenge

Industrial composting is a key route for recovering the organic fraction of urban waste, but the biological process produces nitrous oxide (N₂O), one of the greenhouse gases with the highest global warming potential.

The solution

COMPOST+ develops specific microbial consortia and carbon-encapsulated iron nanoparticles that modulate the nitrogen cycle and reduce the build-up of the intermediates responsible for forming this gas.

CIAGRO-UMH’s role

The CIAGRO-UMH team will validate these tools under real industrial composting conditions. Controlled composting processes simulating industrial conditions will be carried out at the COMPOLAB-UMH facilities: the team will produce the microbial consortium and the iron nanoparticles in sufficient quantities for the trials and will quantify the reduction in N₂O emissions to determine the real mitigation potential of these technologies.

Consortium

The project is coordinated by the Plastics Technology Centre (AIMPLAS) and carried out in cooperation with the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV), the farmers’ cooperative COBATUR and the Valencian companies AGROTAN TANUSO and CALPECH. It is aligned with the S3-CV strategy “Towards a circular, low-carbon economy”.

With this funding, COMPOST+ will advance innovative solutions to reduce the climate impact of bio-waste treatment and strengthen the role of Valencian research in the transition towards more sustainable models of waste management and agricultural production.