News in Press-centre

Far Eastern Federal University (FEFU) and Sustainable Organic Solutions (Australia) have agreed on a joint project on the use of brown coal for the production of organic fertilizers. The Vice President for Research and Innovation Anvir Fatkulin, the representatives of the FEFU School of Engineering and the foreign company discussed the prospects of cooperation in the new area at the meeting.

According to Alexey Belov, the Assistant Professor, Department of Mining and Integrated Development of Mineral Resources, School of Engineering, for many years Sustainable Organic Solutions has specialized in the production of agricultural biofertilizers in Australia and became interested in the possibility of their production from coal in Primorye with the access to the Asian market over time. The new partner invited FEFU to jointly develop a scientifically reasoned technology and to implement it later in production at the University-based small innovative enterprises.

"The brown coal mined in the Primorsky Krai is rich in humic acids that exert beneficial effects on crops," said Alexey Belov. "Stocks of the raw material in the region are truly enormous, and the researches on non-fuel use of coal have been carried out at the University for nearly ten years. That is why the cooperation with FEFU is so interesting for Sustainable Organic Solutions."

At the company's request the researchers of the School of Engineering will start to investigate the chemical processes of the extraction of the Primorsky coal humic components with the defined properties and their impact on crop growth, and will develop technological schemes and regulation of production. In addition, FEFU is going to launch new programs for training and retraining of specialists in the field of management of environmentally friendly agriculture on the basis of biological stimulators.

The Russian–Australian project will be implemented under the FEFU Competitiveness Enhancement Program (5top100 Project).