ESRIG-EES colloquium: Cleo Offers and Mohamed Albarahamtoshy, MSc EES student
| When: | Tu 28-08-2018 16:00 - 17:00 |
| Where: | 5159.0010, Energy Academy, Nijenborgh 6 |
Title: Duckweed as concentrate cow feed - improving local nitrogen cycling on Dutch dairy farms.
By: Cleo Offers, MSc EES student.
Summary:
Concentrate feeds and artificial fertilizers make up the large influx of nitrogen in the dairy farm system. A small share of nitrogen leaves the system fixated in milk and meat, while manure contains the bulk of nitrogen. Nitrogen is partially recycled within the system through manure fertilization of farmland to provide roughage feed. However, a high amount of nitrogen is lost through volatilization and leaching to groundwater and ditches. On top of that there is a manure excess, which cannot be placed on the farm’s own land promoting more nitrogen loss from the farm system. To close nitrogen loops efforts are made to convert manure into artificial fertilizer. A less conventional route is to use manure for the on-farm production of concentrate feed. This reduces the influx of nitrogen through bought concentrate feeds into the farm system, thus promoting local nitrogen cycling. This study focuses on the use of duckweed as a concentrate feed replacement. Duckweed is a protein rich floating aquatic plant, is suitable as concentrate feed and can be grown on-farm on excess manure. To evaluate the potential of this plant I developed a crop growth model to determine yield potentials. The assessed yields were used to analyse how much feed can be produced on the available nitrogen, how much land/water area is needed for this and how this compares to other options for growing feed (wheat). Finally the potential of using duckweed as measure for closing nitrogen loops on Dutch dairy farms is assessed.
Title: The adoption of home solar systems in Egypt: Barriers based on PESTEL.
By: Mohamed Albarahamtoshy, MSc EES student.
Company: KarmSolar, Cairo, Egypt
Internship period of time from June 7, 2018 to August 31, 2018.
This colloquium will be delivered via video conferencing from Cairo, Egypt.