Anaerobic digestate management, environmental impacts, and techno-economic challenges

Lamolinara, Barbara; Martínez, Amaury Pérez; Guardado-Yordi, Estela; Fiallos, Christian Guillén; Diéguez-Santana, Karel; Ruiz-Mercado, Gerardo J.

doi:10.1016/j.wasman.2021.12.035

Cited by 130 publications

(54 citation statements)

References 182 publications

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“…The anaerobic digestion technology provides cost-effective solutions to the energy demand and is considered an ecofriendly method of waste valorization; however, the generating digestate byproducts still need sustainable technologies for good management and transformation into value-added products to meet the circular economy principal (Ran et al 2022;Lamolinara et al 2022). Kaza et al (2018) assumed that the anaerobic digestion of one-ton feedstock produces 850 to 900 kg digestate.…”

Section: Economymentioning

confidence: 99%

Cultivation of microalgae on liquid anaerobic digestate for depollution, biofuels and cosmetics: a review

et al. 2022

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Solid wastes from domestic, industrial and agricultural sectors cause acute economic and environmental problems. These issues can be partly solved by anaerobic digestion of wastes, yet this process is incomplete and generates abundant byproducts as digestate. Therefore, cultivating mixotrophic algae on anaerobic digestate appears as a promising solution for nutrient recovery, pollutant removal and biofuel production. Here we review mixotrophic algal cultivation on anaerobic waste digestate with focus on digestate types and characterization, issues of recycling digestate in agriculture, removal of contaminants, and production of biofuels such as biogas, bioethanol, biodiesel and dihydrogen. We also discuss applications in cosmetics and economical aspects. Mixotrophic algal cultivation completely removes ammonium, phosphorus, 17β-estradiol from diluted digestate, and removes 62% of zinc, 84% of manganese, 74% of cadmium and 99% of copper.

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Section: Economymentioning

confidence: 99%

Cultivation of microalgae on liquid anaerobic digestate for depollution, biofuels and cosmetics: a review

et al. 2022

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“…Indeed, digestate is characterised by a high turbidity and pH [12][13][14], as well as a high particle content, which can decrease the light availability and consequently disturb the photosynthesis process and thus microalgal growth [15]. Additionally, the wide range of feedstocks used in the AD industry result in a variety of digestates with very different compositions [16,17]. Therefore, there is a need to tailor specific nutrients to suit microalgal growth requirements.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microalgae Cultivation on Nutrient Rich Digestate: The Importance of Strain and Digestate Tailoring under PH Control

et al. 2022

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The bioremediation of digestate using microalgae presents a solution to the current eutrophication issue in Northwest Europe, where the use of digestate as soil fertiliser is limited, thus resulting in an excess of digestate. Ammonium is the main nutrient of interest in digestate for microalgal cultivation, and improving its availability and consequent uptake is crucial for optimal bioremediation. This work aimed to determine the influence of pH on ammonium availability in cultures of two green microalgae, additionally screened for their growth performances on three digestates produced from different feedstocks, demonstrating the importance of tailoring a microalgal strain and digestate for bioremediation purposes. Results showed that an acidic pH of 6–6.5 resulted in a better ammonium availability in the digestate media, translated into better growth yields for both S. obliquus (GR: 0.099 ± 0.001 day−1; DW: 0.23 ± 0.02 g L−1) and C. vulgaris (GR: 0.09 ± 0.001 day−1; DW: 0.49 ± 0.012 g L−1). This result was especially true when considering larger-scale applications where ammonium loss via evaporation should be avoided. The results also demonstrated that digestates from different feedstocks resulted in different growth yields and biomass composition, especially fatty acids, for which, a digestate produced from pig manure resulted in acid contents of 6.94 ± 0.033% DW and 4.91 ± 0.3% DW in S. obliquus and C. vulgaris, respectively. Finally, this work demonstrated that the acclimation of microalgae to novel nutrient sources should be carefully considered, as it could convey significant advantages in terms of biomass composition, especially fatty acids and carbohydrate, for which, this study also demonstrated the importance of harvesting time.

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“…phosphorus, potassium, nitrogen, and other micronutrients) from agricultural waste, such as energy crops, livestock manure, agricultural residues and straw, and others, is widely accepted as a soil biofertiliser to promote crop growth and land health. However, the massive quantities of digestate produced by anaerobic digestion facilities and proper management have raised concerns about valorising this byproduct, whereas without proper management policies, the digestate of anaerobic digestion contributes not only to nutrient pollution, such as eutrophication, harmful algal blooms, and hypoxia (Lamolinara et al 2022) but may also result in a variety of environmental risks, such as pathogen spread and heavy metal pollution (Logan and Visvanathan 2019;Peng and Pivato 2019) and substantial greenhouse gas emissions (Peng et al 2020a(Peng et al , 2020b. As a result, managing the anaerobic digestion effluent digestate in a way that ensures an environmental and circular economy is currently a bottleneck for the sustainability of biogas plants (Peng et al 2020b).…”

Section: Solid Digestate As a Carbon Sequestration Toolmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…bioremediation), or chemical treatment (e.g. oxidation processes); secondly, by the portion of the digestate applied to a liquid or solid separation; and thirdly to partial or a complete upgrading (Lamolinara et al 2022;Herbes et al 2020). A partial end-use policy seeks to minimise volume, whereas a fully processed digestate policy seeks to refine the digestate to solids or fibres, pure water, and mineral concentrates (Logan and Visvanathan 2019).…”

Section: Current Post-treatment Technologies For Digestatementioning

confidence: 99%

Integration of biogas systems into a carbon zero and hydrogen economy: a review

et al. 2022

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The Ukraine conflict has put critical pressure on gas supplies and increased the price of fertilisers. As a consequence, biogas has gained remarkable attention as a local source of both gas for energy and biofertiliser for agriculture. Moreover, climate change-related damage incentivises all sectors to decarbonise and integrate sustainable practices. For instance, anaerobic digestion allows decarbonisation and optimal waste management. Incorporating a biogas system in each country would limit global warming to 2 °C. If suitable policies mechanisms are implemented, the biogas industry could reduce global greenhouse gas emissions by 3.29–4.36 gigatonnes carbon dioxide equivalent, which represent about 10–13% of global emissions. Here, we review the role of the biogas sector in capturing methane and mitigating carbon emissions associated with biogas outputs. Since biogas impurities can cause severe practical difficulties in biogas storing and gas grid delivering systems, we present upgrading technologies that remove or consume the carbon dioxide in raw biogas, to achieve a minimum of 95% methane content. We discuss the role of hydrogen-assisted biological biogas upgrading in carbon sequestration by converting carbon dioxide to biomethane via utilising hydrogen generated primarily through other renewable energy sources such as water electrolysis and photovoltaic solar facilities or wind turbines. This conceptual shift of 'power to gas' allows storing and utilising the excess of energy generated in grids. By converting carbon dioxide produced during anaerobic digestion into additional biomethane, biogas has the potential to meet 53% of the demand for fossil natural gas. We also evaluate the role of digestate from biogas systems in producing biochar, which can be used directly as a biofertiliser or indirectly as a biomethanation enhancement, upgrading, and cleaning material.

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Anaerobic digestate management, environmental impacts, and techno-economic challenges

Cited by 130 publications

References 182 publications

Cultivation of microalgae on liquid anaerobic digestate for depollution, biofuels and cosmetics: a review

Cultivation of microalgae on liquid anaerobic digestate for depollution, biofuels and cosmetics: a review

Microalgae Cultivation on Nutrient Rich Digestate: The Importance of Strain and Digestate Tailoring under PH Control

Integration of biogas systems into a carbon zero and hydrogen economy: a review

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