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Life Cycle Assessment of Biofertilizer Production and Use Compared with Conventional Liquid Digestate Management
David Styles1,2, Paul Adams3, Gunnar Thelin4
1School of Environment, Natural Resources and Geography , Bangor University , Bangor , Wales LL57 2UW.
Environmental Science & Technology
|May 31, 2018
Summary
Extracting nutrients from digestate into digestate biofertilizer (DBF) offers environmental benefits by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and improving synthetic fertilizer substitution. This process is environmentally advantageous compared to conventional digestate handling.
Area of Science:
- Environmental Science
- Agricultural Engineering
- Biotechnology
Background:
- Digestate management from anaerobic digestion poses environmental challenges due to greenhouse gas, nitrogen, and phosphorus emissions.
- Previous life cycle assessments (LCA) did not fully integrate synthetic fertilizer substitution (SFS) with nutrient recovery from digestate.
Purpose of the Study:
- To conduct an expanded LCA comparing conventional liquid digestate (LD) handling with digestate biofertilizer (DBF) production and use.
- To quantify environmental impacts, including SFS efficacy, for both management strategies.
Main Methods:
- Applied an expanded life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology.
- Compared conventional liquid digestate (LD) management with digestate biofertilizer (DBF) production and use.
- Accounted for synthetic fertilizer substitution (SFS) efficacy.
Main Results:
- DBF extraction can lead to significant environmental savings in abiotic resource depletion, acidification, eutrophication, global warming, and cumulative energy demand.
- Potential increases in global warming and cumulative energy demand were observed under worst-case assumptions due to processing inputs.
- Environmental benefits were confirmed when normalized against per capita environmental loadings.
Conclusions:
- Digestate biofertilizer (DBF) extraction presents a more environmentally beneficial approach compared to conventional liquid digestate (LD) handling.
- Optimized nutrient recovery and targeted application of DBF enhance environmental sustainability in waste management and agriculture.
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