Folke Günther The history of the living organisms conquering land Nutrients in food Nutrients in urine 1.The situation in the primordial sea, 400 millon years ago CREATCEAN SEA

Folke Günther What happened when the living organisms conquered land ? Nutrients in food Nutrients in urine 2 The situation after the first animals had conquered land

Folke Günther After just a few tousand years:

Folke Günther Where are the green fields my ancestors were bragging about?

Folke Günther Interlude: What are ’nutrients’ ? ’Nutrients’ are the essential elements needed to construct a body These elements need to be attainable in right proportions E.g.: You need four times more tires than steering wheels to build a car

Folke Günther Without gaseous phases — must be transported as solids or liquids More common in the Earth crust than in the body The constituents of an animal (or vegetable) body: H O C N S P Na K Ca …64 P HOCNS Na K Ca …64 With gaseous phases — can be transported by the air Nutrients – phosphorus is the most important nutrient ! P 10 times more common in the body than in the Earth crust

Folke Günther Nutrients are essential for life -- but phosphorus is the most crucial

Folke Günther We need a method to use the phosphorus molecules several times, without losses, so we can retain phosphorus on land! !

Folke Günther If we could transfer the phosphorus seamless from organism to organism without losses to sea, we might solve it !

Folke Günther PO 4 DN A Urin e Consumption Recycling Reconstruction The regenerative cycle, basic for living systems -- ecosystem level: A seamless transport of phosphorus from organism to organism!

Folke Günther Petrified newspaper found in the Cretaceous – Devon geosynclinal

Folke Günther PO 4 DN A Urin e Consumption Recycling Reconstruction The regenerative cycle High exergy Low exergy

Folke Günther Ecosystem maturation A v a i l a b l e s o l a r e x e r g y Immature system Low diversity Annual plants Competition Parasitism Nutrient leakage Export Fast change Water export by drainage Mature system High diversity Perennial plants Co-operation Mutualism Nutrient circulation On-site consumption Slow change Water export by evaporation Maturation

Folke Günther Present times

Folke Günther In preindustrial times, the farmland nutrients came from the meadows Meadows PO 4 N A certain amount of meadows were needed to feed the farmland Manur e Feed Food Farmland PO 4 Phosphorus and nitrogen were collected by the meadow plants

Folke Günther During industrialisation, people moved into cities

Folke Günther PO 4 N The nutrients that went away to the cities never came back Manur e Feed Food PO 4 These nutrients were collected by the meadow plants In the cities, they also needed food, food from the farms The food contained nutrients The export led to an impoverishment of the agricultural land Food PO 4

Folke Günther PO 4 Food The impoverished land produced insufficient harvests This triggered emigration The industrialisation process might have been halted by the loss of nutrients from farmland

Folke Günther PO 4 Food PO 4 Food The situation was solved by the invention of artificial fertilizers By that, the nutrients from the meadows became unnecessary Even more food could be produced

Folke Günther PO 4 Food PO 4 Pollu- tion PO 4 Pollu- tion PO 4 Pollu- tion PO 4 Pollu- tion PO 4 Pollu- tion But in the cities, the situation was becoming problematic

Folke Günther PO 4 Food PO 4 Pollu- tion PO 4 Pollu- tion PO 4 Pollu- tion PO 4 Pollu- tion PO 4 Pollu- tion But the invention of the piping system eased the problems

Folke Günther PO 4 Pollu- tion PO 4 Pollu- tion PO 4 Pollu- tion PO 4 Pollu- tion PO 4 Pollu- tion However, at the end of the pipe, new problems were encountered Plancton algae multiplied gladly from the new phosphorus

Folke Günther PO 4 Pollu- tion PO 4 Pollu- tion PO 4 Pollu- tion PO 4 Pollu- tion PO 4 Pollu- tion Already 50 years after the introduction of the process, it was realised that it was the phosphorus that caused the problems in the water Therefore, the politicians asked the technicians for a way to remove the phosphorus from the waste water

Folke Günther The problem Naturally, they solved the problem in their usual expedient way Large particle filtration Sedimentation Aeration FlocculationRotation Filtering Air Aluminum sulphate Sludge Problem solved!

Folke Günther The problem The problem to be solved was: Problem solved! ”How to get (moderately) clean water from the polluted water?” This problem was solved.

Folke Günther Sludge However, the question not asked was: ”How to recycle the phosphorus to avoid the problem?” A large part of the phosphorus is contained in the sludge

Folke Günther Food PO 4 Most of the food to the city comes from very large distances City..while the phoshorus in the sludge is placed on a much smaller area

Folke Günther Food PO 4 This means that there will be an accumulation of phosphorus around the city PO 4 After some time, the leakage from this heap will equal what is put on The larger the amount accumulated, the larger the leakage

Folke Günther Food PO 4 At that time, the investment in water purification plants becomes meaningless

Folke Günther Food PO 4 City PO 4 The HEAP-effect, in a saturated system When saturated, the system leaks at the same rate as it is loaded With effiecient waste water treatment methods (P precipitation), this state is attained faster

Folke Günther Hampered Effluent Accumulation Process HEAP The HEAP trap

Folke Günther Hampered Effluent Accumulation P rocess (stored amount) The HEAP trap: (leakage) kQ=J Q J Q kQ (stored amount) Leakage = input

Folke Günther The HEAP effect The HEAP effect -- diffuse nutrient leakage Is an inevitable effect of urban agglomerations Is an inevitable effect of deficient nutrent recycling Can be solved by a changed settlement infrastructure –(or an extremenly expensive transportation system)