Substituting energy crops with organic fraction of municipal solid waste for biogas production at farm level: A full-scale plant study

Pognani, Michele; D’Imporzano, Giuliana; Scaglia, Barbara; Adani, Fabrizio

doi:10.1016/j.procbio.2009.03.014

Cited by 73 publications

(49 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…The principal differences between the two datasets were: i) the share (% of the total) of organic waste: in a, this was about 34%, while in b approximately 59%, and ii) the share of paper and cardboard materials which was 30% in a and 14% in b. The two waste types represented typical variations encountered in Europe and Worldwide (38)(39)(40)(41).…”

Section: Lca Scenario Modeling and System Boundariesmentioning

confidence: 98%

Material Resources, Energy, and Nutrient Recovery from Waste: Are Waste Refineries the Solution for the Future?

Tonini¹,

Martinez-Sanchez²,

Astrup³

2013

Environ. Sci. Technol.

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Waste refineries focusing on multiple outputs of material resources, energy carriers, and nutrients may potentially provide more sustainable utilization of waste resources than traditional waste technologies. This consequential life cycle assessment (LCA) evaluated the environmental performance of a Danish waste refinery solution against state-of-the-art waste technology alternatives (incineration, mechanical-biological treatment (MBT), and landfilling). In total 252 scenarios were evaluated, including effects from source-segregation, waste composition, and energy conversion pathway efficiencies. Overall, the waste refinery provided global warming (GW) savings comparable with efficient incineration, MBT, and bioreactor landfilling technologies. The main environmental benefits from waste refining were a potential for improved phosphorous recovery (about 85%) and increased electricity production (by 15-40% compared with incineration); albeit at the potential expense of additional toxic emissions to soil.Society's need for the outputs from waste, i.e. energy products (electricity vs. transport fuels) and resources (e.g., phosphorous), and the available waste composition were found decisive for the selection of future technologies. Based on the results, it is recommended that a narrow focus on GW aspects should be avoided as most waste technologies may allow comparable performance.Rather, other environmental aspects such as resource recovery and toxic emissions should receive attention in the future.3

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Section: Lca Scenario Modeling and System Boundariesmentioning

confidence: 98%

Material Resources, Energy, and Nutrient Recovery from Waste: Are Waste Refineries the Solution for the Future?

Tonini¹,

Martinez-Sanchez²,

Astrup³

2013

Environ. Sci. Technol.

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“…−15 % absolute) and an enrichment in thermostable compounds in the range of 32 to 625 %, an increase of the degree of aromaticity (e.g., aromatic lignin by approx. 30-60 %), and an accumulation of long-chain aliphatic components due to the inability of the organisms involved in the digestion process to degrade these kind of materials under anoxic conditions (Table 1), indicating a relative increase of the biological recalcitrance in the digestates compared to the input materials (Cuetos et al 2009;Gómez et al 2005Gómez et al , 2007aGómez et al , b, 2011Marcato et al 2009;Pognani et al 2009;Tambone et al 2009Tambone et al , 2013 by unilateral decomposition of the easier decomposable C compounds. Similar conclusions have been drawn in many other reports by application of soil incubation approaches (e.g., Reinhold et al 1991;Sánchez et al 2008;Thomsen et al 2013).…”

Section: Effects Of Anaerobic Digestion On Digestate Organic Matter Cmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of anaerobic digestion on soil carbon and nitrogen turnover, N emissions, and soil biological activity. A review

Möller¹

2015

Agron. Sustain. Dev.

232

139

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Sustainability in agriculture means the inclusion of several aspects, as sustainable agriculture systems must not compromise not only their ability to satisfy future needs by undermining soil fertility and the natural resource base but also sustainable agriculture has had to address a range of other issues including energy use, efficient use, and recycling of nutrients, the effects on adjacent ecosystems including the effects on water bodies and climate change. Organic manures are an important factor to keep the soil fertility level of soils. However, their management is often related to large emissions. In this context, anaerobic digestion is-similarly to composting-a treatment option for stabilization of biogenic wastes leading to a residual product called digestates, enabling the sanitation and the recycling and use as fertilizer. It is also a means to obtain energy from wastes as well as from dedicated energy crops. Therefore, anaerobic digestion potentially addresses several aspects of agricultural sustainability. This review discusses the current state of knowledge on the effects of anaerobic digestion on organic compounds in digestates and the most important processes influencing N emissions in the field, as well as the possible longterm effects on soil microbial biomass and soil fertility. The main findings are that (1) the direct effects of anaerobic digestion on long-term sustainability in terms of soil fertility and environmental impact at the field level are of minor relevance. (2) The most relevant effects of anaerobic digestion on soil fertility as well as on N emissions will be expected from indirect effects related to cropping system changes such as changes in crop rotation, crop acreage, cover cropping, and total amounts of organic manures including digestates. Furthermore, (3) the remaining organic fraction after anaerobic digestion is much more recalcitrant than the input feedstocks leading to a stabilization of the organic matter and a lower organic matter degradation rate after field application, enabling a similar reproduction of the soil organic matter as obtained by direct application of the feedstock or by composting of the feedstock. (4) Regarding emissions, the main direct effect of anaerobic digestion on a farm level is the influence on gaseous emissions during manure or digestate treatment and handling, whereas the direct effects of anaerobic digestion on a field level on emissions (NH 3 − and N 2 O − emissions, NO 3 -leaching) are negligible or at least ambiguous. (5) The main direct effects of anaerobic digestion on the field level are short-term effects on soil microbial activity and changes in the soil microbial community. Therefore, in terms of the effects on agricultural sustainability, potential cropping system-based changes induced by introduction of biogas plants are probably much more relevant for the overall performance and sustainability of the cropping system than the direct effects triggered by application of digestates in comparison to the undigested feedstock...

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“…The disposal at landfills is the main method to manage Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) in the world (He et al, 2005;Pognani et al, 2009;Rimaityt÷ et al, 2010;Dong et al, 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…insects, rodents and birds) determining public health hazards and plant toxicity (Thorneloe and Pacey, 1994). All these negative impacts and the long time required to stabilise raw materials (care period) are the major issues that make landfills unsustainable (Pognani et al, 2009). The Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change (2006) reported that more than 60% of the total MSW produced in the world is landfilled: 67% in Europe, 69% in Africa, 61% in America, 63% in Asia (Dong et al, 2014) and 75% in Oceania.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The high moisture content and low calorific power of OFMSW do not allow energy reclaim by its direct combustion (Chang et al, 1995;Rimaityt÷ et al, 2010). Furthermore, as OFMSW is a biodegradable material, the alternative management methods to the disposal at landfills or incineration are biological processes, such as aerobic composting and AD (Pognani et al, 2009;.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Assessment of Organic Waste Management Methods Through Energy Balance

Comparetti

Febo

Greco

et al. 2014

American Journal of Applied Sciences

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In Italy, the Organic Fraction of Municipal Solid Waste (OFMSW) is nowadays landfilled or processed through aerobic composting. The Italian towns currently support a high cost for OFMSW disposal and cause a high environmental impact, because of long distances travelled from towns to a few available landfills and fewer treatment places, as well as the used waste management methods. An interesting option for OFMSW is Anaerobic Digestion (AD), producing biogas and "digestate". In this survey a theoretical biogas plant was placed near a town of Sicily Region (Italy), centralised with reference to the area considered for producing OFMSW. The distances travelled every year to transport OFMSW from the nine towns considered to the nearest composting plant and the biogas one were calculated using QGIS software. Therefore, the energy balance was computed for each of the four considered scenarios. Within the implementation of Integrated Solid Waste Management (ISWM) method, AD resulted in an energy balance much higher than that of aerobic composting. In fact, differently from composting, AD can significantly contribute to energy recovery, while retaining the nutrients in the digestate produced and reducing Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions. The use of a rational network of towns for OFMSW collection and transportation results relevant, in terms of increased energy balance, only in the case of composting. Therefore, if AD would be implemented as OFMSW management method, by means of biogas plants, each of them placed in an area including some towns, e.g. that considered in this survey, it could highly reduce the cost and the environmental impact of waste disposal.

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Substituting energy crops with organic fraction of municipal solid waste for biogas production at farm level: A full-scale plant study

Cited by 73 publications

References 21 publications

Material Resources, Energy, and Nutrient Recovery from Waste: Are Waste Refineries the Solution for the Future?

Material Resources, Energy, and Nutrient Recovery from Waste: Are Waste Refineries the Solution for the Future?

Effects of anaerobic digestion on soil carbon and nitrogen turnover, N emissions, and soil biological activity. A review

Assessment of Organic Waste Management Methods Through Energy Balance

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