Abstract
Cheese whey (CW) and hemp hurds (HH) represent typically overabundant biowastes of food and agricultural production, and their circular management is crucial to improve both sustainability and profitability of the agri-food chain. By combining experimental biochemical methane potential (BMP) tests and literature data, the techno-economic aspects of a possible future bioenergy valorization of CW and HH through anaerobic digestion (AD) and co- digestion (coAD) were analyzed. Along the 42-days, BMP assays, CW, and HH alone rendered BMP values of 446 ± 66 and 242 ± 13 mL CH4·g VS−1, respectively. The application of coAD with CW and HH at a 70:30 ratio allowed to enhance the biomethane production by 10.7%, as compared to the corresponding calculated value. In terms of economic profitability, the valorization of HH as biomethane in a dual-purpose hemp cultivation could potentially enable net profits of up to 3929 €·ha−1, which could rise to 6124 €·ha−1 in case of coAD with CW. Finally, by projecting the biomethane potential from current and future available CW and HH residues in the national context of Italy, a total biomethane yield of up to 296 MNm3·y−1 could be attained, offering interesting perspectives for the sustainability of key sectors such as transportation.
Highlights
To satisfy the food demand of a steeply increasing human population, the agri-food sector has developed linear economy practices that generate high volumes of biowastes and disperse essential resources and elements in the environment
The individual anaerobic biodegradability was initially investigated in this study
The coAD experiments revealed potential synergistic effects in relation to the final cumulative biomethane production, leading to a 10.7% higher biomethane production as
Summary
To satisfy the food demand of a steeply increasing human population, the agri-food sector has developed linear economy practices that generate high volumes of biowastes and disperse essential resources and elements (mainly C and N) in the environment. Major portions of organic waste are still improperly managed, mainly through landfilling, leading to the release of high CO2 amounts having severe consequences in terms of global warming potential [3]. In this context, the implementation of new sustainable bio-based technologies is needed to produce clean, renewable energy and recover resources from organic waste. Despite the multitude of strategies that have been developed to valorize the energy content of organic feedstocks, anaerobic digestion (AD) still represents the most widely applied process due to its high efficiency, operational flexibility and overall environmental benefits [4,5]
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