TECARE Project

1
TECARE Project
Veneto Region SMEs needs and expectations

• Luca Saiella STAR Parco Scientifico di Verona
  SpaBruxelles, 14 June 2007

2
General overview

• Veneto is the second largest meat producer among
  italian regions, with a 14 share
• 82 of the total value of production is made up
  by poultry (42) and cattle (40)
• A concentration process is going on, with a few
  big players and many small enterprises

3
SMEs involvement

• STAR involved a large number or local SMEs,
  associations and technical experts, in order to
  identify the most popular industrys needs
• A database of 500 target companies was created
  they were invited to the kick-off meeting and to
  the following geographical working group
• 40 actors participated in the launch meeting (23
  of them were SMEs)
• 16 actors participated in the GWG (5 of them were
  SMEs)

launch meeting invitation
4
Needs emerged

• Topics emerged sanitary controls during
  production, animal farming dejections management,
  traceability along the supply chain, shelf-life
  improvement and consumers information
• A specific need was identified as the most urgent
  issue for SMEs (and for big companies too)
  elimination of excess nitrogen produced with the
  dejections of animals, because (used as
  fertilizers) they are polluting surface and
  underground waters, bringing to a EU Commision
  Directive.

traceability
controls
dejections
shelf-life
consumer
dejections management for nitrogen eleimination
5
Nitrogen issue

• The EU Commission Directive on nitrogen pollution
  in waters focuses on the environmental effects of
  excess nitrogen, in particular eutrophication
  (i.e. excessive nutrients in a body of water,
  usually caused by runoff of nutrients like animal
  waste or fertilizers from the land, which causes
  a proliferation of plant life, especially algae,
  which reduces the dissolved oxygen content and
  often causes the extinction of other organisms.)

6
Involved EU regions

• The highest national nitrogen surpluses are found
  in regions of the Netherlands and Belgium (gt 150
  or 200 kg N/ha year). The same levels of surplus
  can be found in Brittany (France) and in Lower
  Saxony, Germany. Surplus of the order of 100-150
  kg N/ha year are also found in Member States with
  relatively low national surplus such as Spain
  (Catalonia), Italy (Lombardia, Veneto), the
  United Kingdom (Northern Ireland, Wales and West
  England).

REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE COUNCIL AND
THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT on implementation of
Nitrates Directive (2007)
7
Directive implementation

• The implementation of the Directive includes
  detection of polluted waters, designation of
  "vulnerable zones" (NVZs), code of good
  agricultural practice, Action Programs within
  NVZs (Code of good agricultural practice becomes
  mandatory other measures like spreading lt170 kg
  N organic/hectare/year), national monitoring
• In 2007 the Directive implementation is still
  incomplete, as confirmed by infringement
  procedures for 7 old Member States, mainly for
  insufficient designation of nitrate vulnerable
  zones (BE, ES, IE, IT, PT, UK) and non conformity
  of action programmes (BE, DE, ES, IE, IT, UK)
• New Member States fulfilled their obligation by
  ensuring transposition, having a water monitoring
  network in place and designation of nitrate
  vulnerable zones. Action programmes are now
  established in all new Member States. The
  Commission is analysing the designation and the
  action programmes to assess their compliance with
  the Nitrates Directive.

REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE COUNCIL AND
THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT on implementation of
Nitrates Directive (2007)
8
Research interests

• SMEs are interested in
• Using animal dejections to produce biogas
• Research of new and efficient ways to lower the
  nitrates level inside the liquid outputs of the
  biogas production process 
• Understanding which is the optimal scale of a
  biogas plant 
• Being informed about different solutions
  available, to chose the one that best fits their
  kind of business, animals, farmland, country
  regulations, etc (they are confused)  

REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE COUNCIL AND
THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT on implementation of
Nitrates Directive (2007)
9
Pilot plant research strategy
Studying the optimal plant size, quantity and
quality of dejections, measuring the nitrates
levels of inbound and outbound wastes,
experimenting ways to reduce nitrates in liquids,
measuring the economic return of the plant
energetic production and the environmental
benefits.
REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE COUNCIL AND
THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT on implementation of
Nitrates Directive (2007)
10
Survey research strategy
Producing a study on the different solutions
available worldwide to solve the nitrates
problem. The output would be a technical user
guide with a software application for SMEs,
aimed at helping them in orientating among
different technologies and choosing the solution
that best fits their kind of business, land,
climate, animals, nutrients, etc.
REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE COUNCIL AND
THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT on implementation of
Nitrates Directive (2007)
11
Research consortium

• Enterprises, research institutes and associations
  from 4 different EU Member States expressed their
  interest in participating to a research on the
  nitrates topic
• Acronym for a research project NITRATE-CARE,
  giving a sense of continuity with the Tecare
  Project
• Thank you for your attention!

REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE COUNCIL AND
THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT on implementation of
Nitrates Directive (2007)