The history of the living organisms conquering land

Nutrients in food

Nutrients in urine

Elementary nutrients

1. The situation in the primordial sea, 400 millon years ago

CREATCEAN SEA

What happened when the living organisms conquered land ?

Nutrients in food

Nutrients in urine

2 The situation after the first organisms had conquered land

After just a few tousand years:

Where are the green fields my ancestors

were bragging about?

Interlude:

What are ’nutrients’ ?

’Nutrients’ are the essential elements needed to construct a body

These elements need to be attainable in right proportionsE.g.: You need four times more tires than steering

wheels to build a car

Without gaseous phases — must be transported as solids or liquids

More common in the Earth crust than in the body

The constituents of an animal (or vegetable) body:HHOOCCNNSSPPNaNaKKCaCa……6464

PP

HHOOCCNNSS

NaNaKKCaCa……6464

With gaseous phases — can be transported by the air

Nutrients

– phosphorus is the most important nutrient !

PP 10 times more common in the body than in the Earth crust

Nutrients are essential for life -- but phosphorus is the most

crucial

We need a method to use the phosphorus molecules several

times, without losses, so we can retain

phosphorus on land!

!

If we could transfer the phosphorus seamless from

organism to organism without losses to sea, we might solve it !

PO4

DNA

Urine

Consumption

Recycling

Reconstruction

The regenerative cycle, basic for living systems-- ecosystem level:

A seamless transport ofphosphorus from organism to organism!

Petrified newspaper found in the Cretaceous – Devon geosynclinal

PO4

DNA

Urine

Consumption

Recycling

Reconstruction

The regenerative cycle

High exergy

Low exergy

Ecosystem maturationA v a i l a b l e s o l a r e x e r g y

Immature system

• Low diversity• Annual plants• Competition• Parasitism• Nutrient leakage• Export• Fast change• Water export by drainage

Mature system• High diversity• Perennial plants• Co-operation• Mutualism• Nutrient circulation• On-site consumption• Slow change• Water export by evaporation

Mat

urat

ion

Mat

urat

ion

Present times

In preindustrial times, the farmland nutrients came from the meadows

Meadows

PO4

N

A certain amount of meadows were needed to feed the farmland

Manure

Feed

FoodFarmland

PO4

Phosphorus and nitrogen were collected by the meadow plants

During industrialisation, people moved into cities

PO4

N

The nutrients that went away to the cities never came back

Manure

Feed

Food PO4

The nutrients were collected by the meadow plants

In the cities, they also needed food, food from the farms

The food contained nutrients

The export led to an impoverishment of the agricultural land

Food PO4

PO4

Food

The impoverished land produced insufficient harvests

This triggered emigration

The industrialisation process mighthave been halted by the loss of nutrients from farmland

PO4

FoodPO4

Food

The situation was solved by the invention of artificial fertilizers

By that, the nutrients from the meadows became unnecessary

Even more food could be produced

PO4

Food

PO4Pollu-tion

PO4Pollu-tion PO4Pollu-

tion

PO4Pollu-tion

PO4Pollu-tion

But in the cities, the situation was becoming problematic

PO4

Food

PO4Pollu-tion

PO4Pollu-tion PO4Pollu-

tion

PO4Pollu-tion

PO4Pollu-tion

But the invention of the piping system eased the problems

PO4

PO4Pollu-tion

PO4Pollu-tion

However, at the end of the pipe, new problems were encountered

Plancton algae multiplied gladly from the new phosphorus

PO4

PO4Pollu-tion

PO4Pollu-tion

Already 50 years after the introduction of the process, it was realised that it was the phosphorus

that caused the problems in the water

Therefore, the politicians asked the technicians for a way to remove the phosphorus from the waste water

The problem

Naturally, they solved the problem in their usual expedient way

Large particlefiltration

Sedimentation

Sedimentation

Aeration

Flocculation Rotation

Filtering

Air

Aluminumsulphate

Sludge

Problem solved!

The problem

The problem to be solved was:

Problem solved!

”How to get (moderately) clean waterfrom the polluted water?”

This problem was solved .

Sludge

However, the question not asked was:

”How to recycle the phosphorus to avoid the problem?”

A large part of the phosphorus is contained in the sludge

Food

Food

Food

PO4

PO4

PO4

Most of the food to the city comes from very large distances

City

..while the phoshorus in the sludge is placed on a much smaller area

Food

Food

Food

PO4

PO4

PO4

This means that there will be an accumulation of phosphorusaround the city

PO4

PO4

PO4

PO4

After some time, the leakage from this heap will equal what is put on

The larger the amount accumulated, the larger the leakage

Food

Food

Food

PO4

PO4

PO4 PO4

PO4

PO4

PO4

At that time, the investment in water purification plants becomes meaningless

FoodFood

PO4 PO4PO4 PO4

PO4

PO4PO4PO4

City

PO4PO4

The HEAP-effect, in a saturated system

When saturated, the system leaks at the same rate as it is

loaded

With effiecient waste water treatment

methods (P precipitation),

this state is attained faster

HHamperedamperedEEffluentffluentAAccumulationccumulationPProcessrocess

The HEAPHEAP trap

HH ampered EE ffluent AA ccumulation P P rocess

(stored amount)

The HEAP trap:

(leakage)

kQ=J

QJ

QkQ(stored

amount)

Leakage

= input

The HEAP effectThe HEAP effect-- diffuse nutrient leakage

• Is an inevitable effect of urban agglomerations

• Is an inevitable effect of deficient nutrent recycling

• Can be solved by a changed settlement infrastructure– (or an extremenly expensive transportation system)

In an insecure situation (as in speculations of the future)

risk analysis can be a good toolWe assume two different futures:• Energy will always be cheap (somebody invents a little black box with a plug and gives it to everybody for free)

• Energy will become expensive

Cheap energy

Expensive energy

We plan our society accordingly

Our assumptions can prove

• Right

•WrongRight Wrong

OK

OK

OKEmbarrasing?

RIP

The different combinations will create different outcomes

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