NutriLoop
2026
Sustainable Excellence Award
Winner
NutriLoop™
Designers / Creators / Authors / Leaders
Skåne Lantbruksforskningsgrupp
Harvesting nutrients before they become pollution.
Modern agriculture depends on valuable nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus, yet millions of tonnes are lost every year through rainfall and surface runoff into streams and waterways. Once these nutrients enter streams and rivers they become pollutants, contributing to toxic aquatic environments, algal blooms and declining freshwater ecosystems. This a particularly serious problem in the Baltic Sea.
NutriLoop™ turns all that on its head. NutriLoop challenges this thought process by preceiving excess agricultural nutrients not as waste, but as valuable natural resources that have simply reached the wrong place. In other words, the excess nutrients in the streams and rivers can be harvested and used again.
The system consists of a distributed network of modular, biodegradable structures placed within agricultural drainage channels and small streams, intercepting nutrient-rich runoff before it reaches rivers. Acting as living nutrient collectors, the modules slow the flow of water and use natural biological processes to capture and concentrate valuable nutrients.
Rather than disposing of the collected material, the nutrient-rich modules are periodically harvested and the recovered nitrogen and phosphorus are returned to agriculture as organic fertiliser, creating a continuous circular nutrient cycle.
By transforming pollution into a harvestable resource, NutriLoop cleans waterways while recovering one of agriculture's most valuable assets. It demonstrates that the future of sustainable water management is not simply removing pollution, but redesigning natural cycles so that nothing of value is ever lost.
