Valentina Orzi

Assessing amendment and fertilizing properties of digestates from anaerobic digestion through a comparative study with digested sludge and compost

Digestate, with biogas represents the final products of anaerobic digestion (AD). The methane-rich biogas is used to produce electricity and heat, whereas the digestate could be valorized in agriculture. Contrarily to well-recognized biomasses such as digested sludge and compost, the properties of the digestate are not well known and its agricultural use remains unexplored. In this work, a first attempt to study the agronomic properties of digestates was performed by comparing the chemical, spectroscopic, and biological characteristics of digestates with those of compost and digested sludge, used as reference organic matrices. A total of 23 organic matrices were studied, which include eight ingestates and relative digestates, three composts, and four digested sludges. The analytical data obtained was analyzed using principal component analysis to better show in detail similarities or differences between the organic matrices studied. The results showed that digestates differed from ingestates and also from compost, although the starting organic mix influenced the digestate final characteristics. With respect to amendment properties, it seems that biological parameters, more than chemical characteristics, were more important in describing these features. In this way, amendment properties could be ranked as follows: compost≅digestate>digested sludge≫ingestate. As to fertilizer properties, AD allowed getting a final product (digestate) with very good fertilizing properties because of the high nutrient content (N, P, K) in available form. In this way, the digestate appears to be a very good candidate to replace inorganic fertilizers, also contributing, to the short-term soil organic matter turnover.

Odours and volatile organic compounds emitted from municipal solid waste at different stage of decomposition and relationship with biological stability

Odours (OU(E)) and volatile organic compounds (VOC) emission during biological process used to treat MSW were studied under standardized conditions in order to detect potential risk for workers and population. Results obtained indicated that odours and VOCs emitted depend on the biological stability of waste measured by the dynamic respiration index (DRI) and a very good correlation were found between these parameters (OU(E) vs. DRI, r=0.96, p<0.001, n=6; VOC vs. DRI, r=0.97, p<0.001, n=6). GC-MS study of the VOCs indicated the presence of a group of molecules that were degraded during the process. On the other hand, a second group of molecules, i.e. aromatic and halogenated compounds, and furan persisted in the waste sample, although molecule concentrations were always lower than Threshold Limit Value-Time Weighted Average (TLV-TWA).

Biogas from dedicated energy crops in Northern Italy: electric energy generation costs

Agricultural anaerobic digestion facilities are increasing in many EU member States and biomass supply is sometimes an issue. Dedicated energy crops (DEC) (mainly Maize, Triticale and Sorghum) are often used to integrate other substrates, such as agricultural residues, manure and organic waste. However, DEC production includes onerous agricultural operations (soil preparation, harvest, transport and storage) and may result in high unit costs (UC) of electric energy (EE, € kWhe−1), compared to other renewable sources. In this work, seven different types of DEC (4 different combinations of crop successions) were cultivated in 30 different parcels, distributed along the Po Valley (northern Italy), using different varieties of seeds for each crop type. All agricultural operations were accounted for their costs (988–3346 € ha−1). Biomass production was measured and reported as average of different parcels for each type of crop (31.2–187 Mg ha−1). Biomass dry matter content and biogas potential were measured on representative samples and the EE obtainable was calculated (7.9–35.3 MWhe ha−1), by assuming conservative factors (CH4 contents in biogas and electric generation yields). The costs of ensiled biomass sensibly varied (13.8–40 € Mg−1) among crop solutions, as well as the same UC of EE (0.068–0.150 € kWhe−1). These costs were considered together with typical plant management and investment costs (plant size: 0.5–1 MWe): total UC of EE generation through anaerobic digestion (considering 100% DEC) varied in a relatively wide range (0.143–0.279 € kWhe−1). When the biomass mix is ‘blended’ with low‐cost residues or organic waste, this range could be lowered to 0.096–187 € kWhe−1. Only this strategy and strong efforts in reducing technological investment/management costs can candidate biogas‐based EE as a really competitive renewable alternative to traditional sources, in the next future.

Comparison of different pretreatments for the production of bioethanol and biomethane from corn stover and switchgrass.

In this study the efficiency of mild ionic liquid (IL) pretreatment and pressurized hot water (PHW) is evaluated and compared in terms of bioethanol and biomethane yields, with corn stover (CS) and switchgrass (SG) as model bioenergy crops. Both feedstocks pretreated with the IL 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate [C2C1Im][OAc] at 100°C for 3h exhibited lower glucose yield that those treated with harsher pretreatment conditions previously used. Compared to PHW, IL pretreatment demonstrated higher bioethanol yields; moreover IL pretreatment enhanced biomethane production. Taking into consideration both bioethanol and biomethane productions, results indicated that when using IL pretreatment, the total energy produced per kg of total solids was higher compared to untreated biomasses. Specifically energy produced from CS and SG was +18.6% and +34.5% respectively, as compared to those obtained by hot water treatment, i.e. +2.3% and +23.4% for CS and SG, respectively.

The role of biological processes in reducing both odor impact and pathogen content during mesophilic anaerobic digestion

Mesophilic anaerobic digestion (MAD) produces renewable energy, but it also plays a role in reducing the impact of digestates, both by reducing odor and pathogen content. Ten full-scale biogas plants characterized by different plant designs (e.g. single digesters, parallel or serial digesters), plant powers (ranging from 180 to 999 kWe), hydraulic retention time (HRT) (ranging between 20 to 70 days) and feed mixes were monitored and odors and pathogens were observed in both ingestates and digestates. Results obtained indicated that MAD reduced odors (OU) from, on average, OUingestate=99,106±149,173 OU m(-2) h(-1) (n=15) to OU digestate=1106±771 OU m(-2) h(-1) (n=15). Pathogens were also reduced during MAD both because of ammonia production during the process and competition for substrate between pathogens and indigenous microflora, i.e. Enterobacteriaceae from 6.85∗10(3)±1.8∗10(1) to 1.82∗10(1)±3.82∗10(1); fecal Coliform from 1.82∗10(4)±9.09 to 2.45∗10(1)±3.8∗10(1); Escherichia coli from 8.72∗10(3)±2.4∗10(1) to 1.8∗10(1)±2.94∗10(1); Clostridium perfringens from 6.4∗10(4)±7.7 to 5.2∗10(3)±8.1 (all data are expressed as CFU g(-1) ww). Plants showed different abilities to reduce pathogen indicators, depending on the pH value and toxic ammonia content.

On-field study of anaerobic digestion full-scale plants (Part II): New approaches in monitoring and evaluating process efficiency

Biogas plants need easy and practical tools for monitoring and evaluating their biological process efficiency. As soon as, in many cases, biomass supply present considerable costs, full-scale anaerobic digestion (AD) processes must approach, as much as possible, the potential biogas yield of the organic mixture fed to the biodigesters. In this paper, a new indicator is proposed (the bio-methane yield, BMY), for measuring the efficiency in full-scale AD processes, based on a balance between the biochemical methane potential (BMP) of the input biomass and the residual BMP of the output materials (digestate). For this purpose, a one-year survey was performed on three different full-scale biogas plants, in the Italian agro-industrial context, and the bio-chemical processes were fully described in order to calculate their efficiencies (BMY = 87-93%) and to validate the new indicator proposed, as useful and easily applicable tool for full-scale AD plants operators.

Solid and liquid fractionation of digestate: Mass balance, chemical characterization, and agronomic and environmental value

Solid-liquid (S/L) separation of digestate (D) represents a simple technology able to produce two fractions having different composition. The aim of this work was to study the effect of S/L separation on dry matter (DM), nitrogen (TKN), phosphorus (P2O5) and heavy metals (HM) repartition into these two fractions and to characterize them. Therefore, thirteen full-scale digestion plants were studied and D, LF and SF were collected during three seasons of the year. Results obtained indicated that unexpectedly, on a mass balance, the liquid fraction still contains the majority of DM, i.e. 67% of the total of D. LF also contained 87% and 71% of TKN and P2O5 respectively. HM contents were in line with typical NP-organic fertilizers. Chemical characterization suggested that the LF can be used as a substitute for mineral N fertilizers because of its high N content, while SF can be proposed as an NP-organic fertilizer.