TY - JOUR
T1 - Environmental assessment of digestate treatment technologies using LCA methodology
AU - Vázquez-Rowe, Ian
AU - Golkowska, Katarzyna
AU - Lebuf, Viooltje
AU - Vaneeckhaute, Céline
AU - Michels, Evi
AU - Meers, Erik
AU - Benetto, Enrico
AU - Koster, Daniel
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 Elsevier Ltd.
PY - 2015/9/1
Y1 - 2015/9/1
N2 - The production of biogas from energy crops, organic waste and manure has augmented considerably the amounts of digestate available in Flanders. This has pushed authorities to steadily introduce legislative changes to promote its use as a fertilising agent. There is limited arable land in Flanders, which entails that digestate has to compete with animal manure to be spread. This forces many anaerobic digestion plants to further treat digestate in such a way that it can either be exported or the nitrogen be removed. Nevertheless, the environmental impact of these treatment options is still widely unknown, as well as the influence of these impacts on the sustainability of Flemish anaerobic digestion plants in comparison to other regions where spreading of raw digestate is allowed. Despite important economic aspects that must be considered, the use of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is suggested in this study to identify the environmental impacts of spreading digestate directly as compared to four different treatment technologies. Results suggest relevant environmental gains when the digestate mix is treated using the examined conversion technologies prior to spreading, although important trade-offs between impact categories were observed and discussed. The promising results of digestate conversion technologies suggest that further LCA analyses should be performed to delve into, for instance, the appropriateness to shift to nutrient recovery technologies rather than digestate conversion treatments.
AB - The production of biogas from energy crops, organic waste and manure has augmented considerably the amounts of digestate available in Flanders. This has pushed authorities to steadily introduce legislative changes to promote its use as a fertilising agent. There is limited arable land in Flanders, which entails that digestate has to compete with animal manure to be spread. This forces many anaerobic digestion plants to further treat digestate in such a way that it can either be exported or the nitrogen be removed. Nevertheless, the environmental impact of these treatment options is still widely unknown, as well as the influence of these impacts on the sustainability of Flemish anaerobic digestion plants in comparison to other regions where spreading of raw digestate is allowed. Despite important economic aspects that must be considered, the use of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is suggested in this study to identify the environmental impacts of spreading digestate directly as compared to four different treatment technologies. Results suggest relevant environmental gains when the digestate mix is treated using the examined conversion technologies prior to spreading, although important trade-offs between impact categories were observed and discussed. The promising results of digestate conversion technologies suggest that further LCA analyses should be performed to delve into, for instance, the appropriateness to shift to nutrient recovery technologies rather than digestate conversion treatments.
KW - Ammonia
KW - Digestate spreading
KW - Digestate treatment
KW - Dried digestate
KW - Flanders
KW - Life Cycle Assessment
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84938738342&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.wasman.2015.05.007
DO - 10.1016/j.wasman.2015.05.007
M3 - Article
C2 - 26092475
AN - SCOPUS:84938738342
SN - 0956-053X
VL - 43
SP - 442
EP - 459
JO - Waste Management
JF - Waste Management
ER -