Hongzhen Luo

Hongzhen Luo is a PhD candidate at Ghent University (Belgium) under the supervision of Prof. Erik Meers. She gained a Master’s degree in Agriculture Engineering at China Agricultural University (China) with the focus on the nutrients recovery from biogas slurry. Her research interest is mainly on the innovative technologies and knowledge for nutrients recovery and resource recycling towards a more sustainable agriculture. Since 2018 she has been working in the Nutri2Cycle project on the topic of “Transition towards a more carbon and nutrient efficient agriculture – nutrient recovery systems and application of recycled nutrients as substitutes for synthetic mineral fertilisers”. The main goal of this work is to evaluate the nitrogen value of biobased products recovered from biowaste in agricultural application in the replacement of synthetic mineral fertiliser. For this purpose, experiments at laboratory and field scale are designed to investigate the N availability of biobased products after application, as well as the effect on the interactions between crop and soil microorganisms. This will lead to a deeper understanding on the value of the recovered nutrients for the crop growth and also the soil health.