Challenges in Treatment of Digestate Liquid Fraction from Biogas Plant. Performance of Nitrogen Removal and Microbial Activity in Activated Sludge Process

Even thoughdigestate, which is continually generated in anaerobic digestion process, can only be used as fertilizer during the growing season, digestate treatment is still a critical, environmental problem. That is why the present work aims to develop a method to manage digestate in agricultural biogas plant in periods when its use as fertilizer is not possible. A lab-scale system for the biological treatment of the digestate liquid fraction using the activated sludge method with a separate denitrification chamber was constructed and tested. The nitrogen load that was added tothe digestate liquid fraction accounted for 78.53% of the total nitrogen load fed into the reactor. External carbon sources, such as acetic acid, as well as flume water and molasses, i.e., wastewater and by-products from a sugar factory, were used to support the denitrification process. The best results were obtained using an acetic acid and COD (Chemical Oxygen Demand)/NO3-N (Nitrate Nitrogen) ratio of 7.5. The removal efficiency of TN (Total Nitrogen), NH4-N (Ammonia Nitrogen) and COD was 83.73%, 99.94%, 86.26%, respectively. It was interesting to see results obtained that were similar to those obtained when using flume water and COD/NO3-N at a ratio of 8.7. This indicates that flume water can be used as an alternative carbon source to intensify biological nitrogen removal from digestate.

Automated summary

This study aimed to develop a method to manage digestate in agricultural biogas plants during periods when its use as fertilizer is not possible. A lab-scale system utilizing acetic acid and other external carbon sources was tested for biological treatment of the digestate liquid fraction. Results showed that flume water could be used as an alternative carbon source to enhance biological nitrogen removal from digestate.