Predicting relative agronomic efficiency of phosphorus-rich organic residues

Relative agronomic efficiency (RAE) of phosphorus (P) in nutrient-rich residues with different chemical characteristics must be known in order to optimize their use as fertilizers, to avoid underfertilization of crops or eutrophication of surface waters due to overfertilization. In this study, we determined the chemical characteristics and RAE of manures (cattle, pig, fox) and sewage sludges subjected to different treatments (anaerobic digestion, composting, lime stabilization, thermal hydrolyzation, pyrolyzation, hydrothermal carbonization (HTC)) by growing barley (Hordeum vulgare, var. Elmeri) to maturity in three independent growth trials. All manures had high RAE (up to 189% in pig slurry), while RAE was only 6–17% for digested and composted sewage sludges when precipitation with Fe used for P removal from wastewater.Follow the link for access to the full publication https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.145618