From practical investments to policy action: CiNURGi presents its final results

After three years of collaboration across the Baltic Sea Region, CiNURGi is approaching the end of its project period with results to share. The final webinar, CiNURGi Webinar: Final project results, showcased nutrient recycling solutions developed with companies in Finland, Sweden and Poland, alongside the project’s 27 policy recommendations for accelerating nutrient recycling. The webinar brought together project partners, companies and stakeholders to discuss both the opportunities demonstrated by the investments and the policy conditions needed to support wider adoption.

The webinar opened with a keynote on nutrient recycling in the Baltic Sea Region by Elsi Kauppinen from the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region’s Policy Area Nutri. Ida Sylwan, CiNURGi project lead at RISE, then introduced the project and its overall results.

Four investments demonstrate nutrient recycling in practice

A key part of the webinar was dedicated to four investment cases developed in collaboration with companies. The cases demonstrated different approaches to implementing nutrient recycling solutions, from applying new technologies to improving nutrient management and developing new production methods.

Tero Liukas: bringing measurement technology into agriculture and logistics

Tero Liukas, CEO of Kuljetus Tero Liukas Oy, together with technology adviser Jari Hakkarainen from Datasense, presented work involving Near Infrared (NIR) spectrometry.

NIR technology can help determine the composition of materials rapidly, supporting better-informed decisions in applications such as agricultural nutrient management and logistics. Better information about material composition can help improve the handling, transport and use of nutrient-rich materials. The case illustrates how measurement technology can support more efficient nutrient recycling by connecting information about available resources with their practical use.

Bröderna Göransson: supporting more precise nutrient application

Fredrik Göransson, owner of Bröderna Göransson Maskinstation, and Per-Anders Algerbo, researcher at RISE, presented another application of NIR technology in agricultural practice.

The company’s work highlights the importance of making nutrient recycling solutions compatible with the realities of farming. They attached a NIR meter to a slurry tanker used for spreading manure on fields, to create maps for precision farming. Such approaches can help connect recycled nutrient products and organic fertilisers with the equipment, working methods and decisions already used in agriculture.

RENDBEN: developing solutions for local nutrient value chains

Ksawery Kuligowski, Assistant Professor at the Institute of Fluid-Flow Machinery of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IMP PAN) and associated with RENDBEN, presented the company’s nutrient recycling investment.

The work highlights the potential of developing practical processing solutions that help turn organic side streams into useful fertiliser products. RENDBEN has created a small-scale mobile fertilizer production unit as part of the CiNURGi project and IMP PAN tested the agronomic value of the fertilizers created in the pilot.

Mobile and decentralised production approaches can offer opportunities to process nutrient-rich materials closer to where they arise, potentially reducing logistical challenges and supporting local nutrient value chains. This is particularly relevant in regions where transporting bulky, untreated materials over long distances can make nutrient recovery difficult or costly.

Sanitation360: recovering nutrients for circular use

Björn Vinnerås, President of Sanitation360, presented the company’s work on nutrient recycling. Sanitation360’s approach centres on recovering nutrients from human urine and transforming them into fertiliser products. Urine contains valuable plant nutrients that can otherwise be lost from the nutrient cycle. Recovering and processing these nutrients creates an opportunity to return them to agricultural production. The case illustrates how nutrient recycling can extend beyond traditional agricultural waste streams and include municipal and sanitation systems as sources of valuable resources.

Together, the four cases demonstrated the variety of approaches being explored through CiNURGi. The investment presentations illustrated that nutrient recycling can take many forms, depending on the available biomass, local conditions and intended use of the recovered nutrients.

Policy recommendations to accelerate nutrient recycling

The second major focus of the webinar was CiNURGi’s policy recommendations, presented by Eetu Virtanen from the HELCOM Secretariat. The recommendations bring together the project’s findings and experience in support of a circular nutrient economy and the implementation of the HELCOM Baltic Sea Regional Nutrient Recycling Strategy. In total, CiNURGi has developed 33 policy recommendations addressing actions related to nutrient management in the HELCOM Baltic Sea Action Plan.

The recommendations address the conditions needed to strengthen nutrient recycling across the Baltic Sea Region, including environmental protection, product safety, knowledge exchange, market development and policy coherence. Their publication marks an important milestone in the project: translating research, practical experimentation and stakeholder dialogue into proposals that policymakers and other stakeholders can use in their work.
The recommendations also underline that accelerating nutrient recycling requires action across several policy areas. Rules governing agriculture, waste management, fertilising products and environmental protection all influence whether nutrients can be recovered safely and brought back into productive use. Better coordination between these frameworks can help reduce barriers, provide greater certainty for businesses and support the development of markets for recycled nutrient fertilisers.

Cooperation across the Baltic Sea Region

The event concluded with a discussion and audience questions, including comments from Line Strand, adviser at The Rural Economy Society. This exchange reflected the collaborative approach underpinning CiNURGi. Nutrient recycling connects many different actors, from those generating organic side streams to technology developers, fertiliser producers, farmers, researchers and public authorities. Cooperation between these groups is essential for identifying viable solutions, understanding practical barriers and developing approaches that work across regional and national boundaries.

The Baltic Sea Region provides an important setting for this cooperation. Although the availability of nutrient-rich biomass and the conditions for recycling vary between regions, shared challenges create opportunities to exchange experience, adapt solutions and learn from practical investments.

As CiNURGi reaches the end of its three-year implementation period, the final webinar offered an opportunity to bring together the project’s practical and policy-oriented results.

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