Ecology

ECOLOGY

Tracegrow’s operation is built to resolve several environmental challenges.

Population overgrowth, wasting natural resources and climate change are forcing societies to increase their food production and lower their emissions.

New technologies and ideas are needed for this, and Tracegrow has taken the challenge gladly.

Soil depletion

Food plants around the world are suffering from micronutrient deficiency. Arable land is becoming depleted, and therefore produces less food than originally. Global warming only accelerates this trend. At the same time, the world’s population is growing.

In the interests of food security, higher yields from smaller cultivated areas will be required. Thus more effective farming is needed.

Two very important micronutrients for optimal plant growth are zinc and manganese. It is estimated that two billion people every year suffer from zinc deficiency in their diet, and hundreds of thousands of people die annually because of this. 

10 billion used alkaline batteries

More than 10 billion alkaline batteries are manufactured in the world yearly. EU Member States have pledged to recycle approximately 50 percent of batteries by weight. This means approximately 125,000 tons of recycling per year

The alkaline batteries are based on the reaction between two trace elements, zinc and manganese. Usually batteries are collected, crushed, and the resulting zinc and mangenese containing ”black mass” is sent to smelting. This method uses vast amounts of energy, and only zinc is recovered, whereas manganese gets wasted to slag.

It is also good to remember that excavating of zinc and manganese from mines also consumes vast amounts of energy compared to using a recycled raw material like used batteries.

Saving natural resources with cleantech process

Tracegrow’s new cleantech process solves both of these problems. It increases the recycling rate of zinc and manganese from alkaline batteries tremendously. Now over 90 % of both zinc and manganese can be utilized. The process itself works at room temperature, so energy consumption compared to smelting and mining is minimal.

The resulting purified liquid is a zinc- and manganese containing foliar fertilizer. The harmful metals like nickel, cadmium and mercury are removed during the process, so the product is safe to be used to boost plant growth.

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