Life Cycle Assessment of Biofertilizer Production and Use Compared with Conventional Liquid Digestate Management

Environmental Science & Technology
David StylesPaul J A Withers

Abstract

Handling of digestate produced by anaerobic digestion impacts the environment through emission of greenhouse gases, reactive nitrogen, and phosphorus. Previous life cycle assessments (LCA) evaluating the extraction of nutrients from digestate using struvite precipitation and ammonia stripping did not relate synthetic fertilizer substitution (SFS) to nutrient use efficiency consequences. We applied an expanded LCA to compare the conventional management of 1 m3 of liquid digestate (LD) from food waste against the production and use of digestate biofertilizer (DBF) extracted from LD, accounting for SFS efficacy. Avoidance of CH4, N2O, and NH3 emissions from LD handling and enhanced SFS via more targeted use of nutrients in the versatile DBF product could generate environmental savings of up to 0.129 kg Sb eq, 4.16 kg SO2 eq, 1.22 kg PO4 eq, 33 kg CO2 eq, and 20.6 MJ eq per m3 LD, for abiotic resource depletion, acidification, eutrophication, global warming, and cumulative energy demand burdens, respectively. However, under worst-case assumptions, DBF extraction could increase global warming and cumulative energy demand by 7.5 kg CO2e and 251 MJ eq per m3 LD owing to processing inputs. Normalizing these results against per capita e...Continue Reading

References

Feb 21, 2002·The Science of the Total Environment·Paul J A Withers, Eunice I Lord
Oct 25, 2008·Journal of Environmental Quality·David FangueiroHenrique Trindade
Feb 17, 2009·Bioresource Technology·J B Holm-NielsenP Oleskowicz-Popiel
Apr 12, 2011·Nature·Mark A SuttonWilfried Winiwarter
Jul 9, 2013·The Science of the Total Environment·Jacopo BacenettiSara González-García
Dec 3, 2013·Journal of Environmental Management·Marieke ten HoeveSander Bruun
Apr 25, 2015·Environmental Science & Technology·John GallagherA Prysor Williams
Jun 21, 2015·Waste Management·Ian Vázquez-RoweDaniel Koster
Apr 22, 2016·The Science of the Total Environment·David StylesDave Chadwick
Jul 19, 2016·Plant and Soil·Peter J TalboysPaul J A Withers

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Citations

Oct 13, 2020·Frontiers in Microbiology·Valentina Mazzurco MiritanaAnna Barra Caracciolo
Jan 7, 2022·The Science of the Total Environment·Elisavet Angouria-TsorochidouMarianne Thomsen

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