Production of organomineral fertilizers from brewery waste
beer, reuse, nutrients
Brazil is one of the largest food producers in the world, even with soils with low levels of nutrients and the excessive use of the soil further increases the impoverishment of these elements, requiring the use of fertilizers to improve the concentration of nutrients in the soil that are made available to the plants. The brewing industries are of great importance in the economic development of the country, which ends up being a sector that generates large amounts of waste. Therefore, the present study aimed to develop new formulations of organomineral fertilizers with brewery waste. Different formulations were developed for conventional and organic agricultural production processes, which are in the intellectual property process. The raw material and the products created underwent chemical analysis, according to the methodologies recommended by MAPA, to evaluate the composition of each product, the fertilizers were submitted to evaluations of nutrient release in the laboratory and in a greenhouse, evaluating the growth of maize with the use of these new products, for the determination of its agronomic efficiency. The new formulations of organomineral fertilizers showed results similar to and, in some cases, even superior to conventional mineral phosphate fertilizers, such as monoammonium phosphate (MAP) and thermophosphate, which are normally used in agriculture. The residues of malt bagasse and diatomaceous earth showed interesting characteristics for use as a raw material for fertilizers. The NPK formulations were efficient both for phosphate fertilization and for potassium fertilization. In addition, organomineral fertilizers were as efficient as conventional mineral fertilizers in the initial development of corn, obtaining efficiency of 91.22% for FERTCERVA 13 developed for conventional agriculture and 121.02% for ORGANOCERVA 4, developed for agriculture organic. In this way, it was possible to observe that the organomineral fertilizers produced from brewery waste proved to be efficient fertilizers, and can be used in agriculture in food production, providing nutrients for the soil and contributing to the disposal of waste from the brewing industry.