Mr Md Shahidullah (he/him)

Research Project Title: Design and testing of integrated vermifiltration of anaerobic digestate and hydroponics systems for closed-loop urban application

Anaerobic digestion of food waste provides biogas and digestate in liquid and solid form. Liquid digestate contains essential plant nutrients and is conventionally applied in open-field agriculture as an alternative to inorganic fertilisers. This liquid digestate can be filtered through a suitable filtration method, for instance, vermifiltration, to make a clearer hydroponic nutrient solution. This project will look to make an essential plant nutrient solution from organic sources (food waste digestate) to reduce the dependence on inorganic fertilisers in hydroponic crop production, which is the novelty of this research project.
The main aim of the research project is to investigate the applicability of organic hydroponics and urban “waste to food” systems at the small-scale urban grower’s level. The objectives of the project are as follows:
-Develop a method for the pre-treatment of food waste digestate
- Investigate the nutritional efficacy of the effluent obtained from the vermifilter on hydroponic crops. 
- Design an integrated anaerobic digestion reactor and hydroponic crop production systems for small-scale growers.
- Techno-economic analysis (TEA) of the newly developed coupled AD and hydroponics.
 

Urban food systems, Vertical farming, Vermifiltration, Sustainable Agriculture