The group mentors a young researcher and publishes a chapter on biofertilisers with her
Nathaly Torres Gallo, an agro-industrial engineer, completed her young-researcher placement with Daniel Otero Meza as mentor. That year of work produced a book chapter reviewing the scientific literature on biofertilisers made from organic waste.
In 2023, Nathaly A. Torres Gallo joined the group as a young researcher, on a research placement grant from the Young Researchers of Sucre project, which for one year supported twenty recent graduates in their first research experience. Daniel Otero Meza was her mentor, and that year's work was published as a book chapter.
The chapter, on the valorisation of organic waste to produce biofertilisers through a bibliometric review of trends and advances, written with Daniel Otero Meza, Jairo Salcedo Mendoza and Jorge Hernández Ruydíaz, appears in volume 2 of a collection on the research practice of young researchers in Sucre, published by Editorial CECAR after double-blind peer review.
The review analysed 719 documents indexed in Scopus since 2014. India leads output, with 164 documents, followed by Brazil and China, and environmental and agricultural sciences account for most of the work. The chapter concludes that engineering is still underrepresented in this field and points to where there is room to contribute, such as improving the inoculants that enrich compost in nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, controlling product quality and shelf life, and reusing leachates.
The valorisation of organic and farm waste is now part of INGEBIR's energy valorisation and circular bioeconomy line, and mentoring young professionals remains one of the ways the group trains researchers.