News

Start of new Public-Private Cooperation "Prevention and Control of leaching from greenhouses"

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March 21, 2017

On Friday March 17th the kick-off meeting took place of a new Public-Private Cooperation on leaching problems from greenhouses. In this project, solutions will be developed for the horticultural sector to minimise leaching of nutrients and pesticides to the environment (esp. surface water), in order to comply with legislation and societal demands.

Research of the business unit Greenhouse Horticulture of Wageningen University & Research, in collaboration with the horticultural sector, has been focussing on 1) the development of innovations and strategies to enable a zero-liquid discharge (zero-emission cultivation), and 2) the development of purification techniques and strategies to improve the water quality (remove nutrients and/or pesticides) in case of discharging. However, several questions remain that will be addressed in this project.
One of the main reasons for discharge is the accumulation of sodium and other undesirable substances in the recirculating nutrient solution. Sodium levels above crop-dependent boundaries lead to reduced productivity and quality, and will be prevented by growers by discharging drain water. Other undesirable substances may enter the recirculating system by using for instance chlorine containing disinfectants. With respect to purification of discharged water streams, the focus has been on the removal of pesticides from discharged drain water. But not much is known about effective purification of water streams with another composition and volume, such as cleaning and disinfecting water and leakage water.
Solutions to these questions are developed in the new Public-Private cooperation, formed by the business unit Greenhouse Horticulture of Wageningen University & Research, KWR Water, LTO Glaskracht NL, Haket, Yara, WaterQ, Verhoeve Milieu & Water, Priva, Blue-Tec, Humintech and Crop Cooperative Gerbera. Financing: Topsector Horticulture & Starting Materials, TKI Water Technology, Stichting Programmafonds Glastuinbouw and the partners.