Abstract
Anaerobic digestion is an optimal way to treat organic waste matter, resulting in biogas and residue. Utilization of the residue as a crop fertilizer should enhance crop yield and soil fertility, promoting closure of the global energy and nutrient cycles. Consequently, the requirement for production of inorganic fertilizers will decrease, in turn saving significant amounts of energy, reducing greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere, and indirectly leading to global economic benefits. However, application of this residue to agricultural land requires careful monitoring to detect amendments in soil quality at the early stages.
Highlights
Anaerobic digestion is an optimal way to treat organic waste matter, resulting in biogas and residue
The use of biogas residue as a crop fertilizer within agriculture is a relatively new concept [14], and different types of waste are routinely employed as input substrate for digesters [18,19,20,21,22]
Tiwari et al [11] showed that significant amounts of mineral N could be substituted with biogas slurries in cropping of wheat, and Svensson and colleagues [16] reported that biogas residue derived from source-separated household waste contained equivalent quantities of mineral N to that supplied by organic fertilizers of agricultural crops, and enhanced both crop yield and grain quality of oats and spring barley
Summary
Anaerobic digestion of organic waste has significant potential to reduce global warming and climate change [1] as it promotes enhanced cycling of nutrient resources through nutrient-rich end products [2,3] (hereafter referred to as biogas residue) and presents an alternative to the energydemanding generation of mineral fertilizers [4,5,6]. The use of biogas residue as a crop fertilizer within agriculture is a relatively new concept [14], and different types of waste are routinely employed as input substrate for digesters [18,19,20,21,22]. To ensure that biogas residue is an acceptable crop fertilizer, the waste needs to be of high quality with proven value as an efficient plant nutrient source and/or soil conditioner [16]. A brief discussion about the modern molecular methods suitable for monitoring the land application of biogas residue is included along with a section dealing with the future challenges in the use of biogas
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