The fertilizer calculator computes the cost and carbon footprint of using different types of organic fertilizers. Various assumptions about the materials, such as chemical content, transportation methods, distribution techniques, and efficiency, are pre-programmed into the calculator and cannot be modified.
To use the calculator, you need to select values for several variables, and the results are displayed immediately in both table and graph formats.
Choose one of 14 different types of organic fertiliser: bokashi compost, aquaculture waste, fish meal, wort, horseradish, chicken dung, chicken dung, kjötmjöl, kúamykju, moltu, own dung, sludge, blackwater or pig dung.
Enter the size of the settlement areas in hectares.
Enter the kilo of nitrogen per hectare to be distributed in the relevant settlement area. For organic fertilisers, 150 kilos of nitrogen per hectare should be selected.
Enter how many kilometres you need to drive with the organic fertilizer from where it is obtained and to the settlement area.
Enter how many kilometres you need to drive with fertilizer from the port of settlement to the settlement area.
The plan also includes a single distribution of fertilizers, with the distribution of fertilizers divided over three years, 50 kilos of nitrogen per hectare each year, to achieve the same goal.
This might seem strange, but since the fertilizers from the organic fertilizers are dissolving more quickly than the fertilizers from the synthetic fertilizers, the fertilizer effect lasts longer. The synthetic fertilizers dissolve quickly and if 150 kilos of nitrogen per hectare were distributed at once, most of it would go waste and wash out without plants being able to use it.
The results for the organic fertilizer chosen by the user are compared to similar results for synthetic fertilizer. Figures for cost and emissions are presented both in a table and in a bar chart. Finally, a simple sensitivity analysis is performed, showing the cost and carbon emissions of all materials under the same conditions as if they were all available at the same location.
View fertilizer calculator (in Icelandic only)
The calculator was developed in collaboration with EFLA Engineering.
