Treatment of Manure and Digestate Liquid Fractions Using Membranes: Opportunities and Challenges

Rumbau, Maria Salud Camilleri; Briceño, Kelly; Søtoft, Lene Fjerbæk; Christensen, Knud Villy; Roda‐Serrat, Maria Cinta; Errico, Massimiliano; Norddahl, Birgir

doi:10.3390/ijerph18063107

Cited by 28 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 170 publications

(216 reference statements)

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“…Different membrane filtration processes, including micro-, ultra-, and nanofiltration, reverse osmosis, forward osmosis, membrane distillation and electrodialysis, have been developed or tested to treat the wet phase of separated digestate (Camilleri-Rumbau et al, 2021). Membranes are often based of polymeric compounds or aluminum or titan oxides.…”

Section: Membrane Filtration Technologiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Phosphorus retention and agronomic efficiency of refined manure-based digestate—A review

Persson

Rueda-Ayala

2022

Front. Sustain. Food Syst.

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Digestate, a by-product from anaerobic digestion of organic materials such as animal manure, is considered a suitable plant fertilizer. However, due to its bulkiness and low economic value, it is costly to transport over long distances and store for long periods. Refinement processes to valorize digestate and facilitate its handling as a fertilizer include precipitation of phosphorus-rich mineral compounds, such as struvite and calcium phosphates, membrane filtration methods that concentrate plant nutrients in organic products, and carbonization processes. However, phosphorus retention efficiency in output products from these processes can vary considerably depending on technological settings and characteristics of the digestate feedstock. The effects of phosphorus in plant fertilizers (including those analogous or comparable to refined digestate products) on agronomic productivity have been evaluated in multiple experiments. In this review, we synthesized knowledge about different refinement methods for manure-based digestate as a means to produce phosphorus fertilizers, thereby providing the potential to increase phosphorus retention in the food production chain, by combining information about phosphorus flows in digestate refinement studies and agronomic fertilizer studies. It was also sought to identify the range, uncertainty, and potential retention efficiency by agricultural crops of the original phosphorus amount in manure-based digestate. Refinement chains with solid/wet phase separation followed by struvite or calcium phosphate precipitation or membrane filtration of the wet phase and carbonization treatments of the solid phase were included. Several methods with high potential to extract phosphorus from manure-based wet phase digestate in such a way that it could be used as an efficient plant fertilizer were identified, with struvite precipitation being the most promising method. Synthesis of results from digestate refinement studies and agronomic fertilizer experiments did not support the hypothesis that solid/wet separation followed by struvite precipitation, or any other refinement combination, results in higher phosphorus retention than found for unrefined digestate. Further studies are needed on the use of the phosphorus in the solid phase digestate, primarily on phosphorus-rich soils representative of animal-dense regions, to increase understanding of the role of digestate refinement (particularly struvite precipitation) in phosphorus recycling in agricultural systems.

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Section: Membrane Filtration Technologiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Phosphorus retention and agronomic efficiency of refined manure-based digestate—A review

Persson

Rueda-Ayala

2022

Front. Sustain. Food Syst.

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“…However, without adequate treatment, the high concentrations of nutrients and organic compounds in liquid manure can have a negative effect on soil and water ecosystems [2][3][4]. Liquid manure also needs to be carefully managed to avoid odorous gas emissions and nutrient runoff into water sources [5]. As a consequence, the characteristics of liquid fertilizer are monitored to ensure that the quality is up to the required standards for application to farmland [6].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Liquid swine manure (LSM) and anaerobic digestate (AD) are commonly used on farmland as organic fertilizers due to their high nutrient loads [5,11,12]. LSM contains all 13 essential nutrients [13], including 50-70% N, 90% K, and 35% P for plant consumption [14,15], while the high N, P, and K content in liquid or semiliquid AD increases its demand as a fertilizer [16,17].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Utilization of Thermophilic Aerobic Oxidation and Electrocoagulation to Improve Fertilizer Quality from Mixed Manure Influent

et al. 2022

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Thermophilic aeration and electrochemical reactions are well-established methods for wastewater treatment to reduce metallic content, organic and inorganic matter, turbidity, coloration, and nutrient levels. In this study, thermophilic aerobic oxidation (TAO) and electrocoagulation (EC) were implemented together to improve the quality of liquid fertilizer by reducing the nutrient load and toxicity of swine manure. The influent in this study was prepared by mixing anaerobic digestate and liquid swine manure at a 1:9 ratio and treating it for 3 days at 50–60 °C in a field-scale TAO system. The TAO effluent was then processed in an EC reactor for 180 min with a 30 V electric supply through two sets of iron and aluminum hybrid electrodes. The combined TAO and EC processes led to a germination index of 133% using the final efflux. The high retention of important nutrients such as total nitrogen and potassium, combined with the 100% reduction in heavy metals, over 60% reduction in trace minerals, and 89% reduction in pollutants in the final product, helped to achieve a higher germination index. Overall, the combination of TAO and EC was demonstrated to be an effective technique for enhancing the quality of liquid fertilizer derived from swine manure.

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“…This treatment provides heat for the pig houses where the pig manure can be continuously collected all year. The AD product, digestate, has been used widely as soil fertiliser because of its low cost compared with other approaches such as liquid-solid separation, pyrolysis of the solid fraction, and wastewater treatment for the liquid fraction (Camilleri-Rumbau et al, 2021; Zhang et al, 2021). Research has shown the fate of ARGs after AD treatment was dependent on AD starting modes, and most of the genes were carried by Firmicutes (Zhi et al, 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Data based slurry treatment decision tree to minimise antibiotic resistance and pathogen transfer while maximising nutrient recycling

Thuy

Nolan

Hayes

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Direct application of pig slurry to agricultural land introduces pathogens, antibiotic resistant bacteria, or genes, to the envi-ronment. With global environmental sustainability policies mandating a reduction in synthetic fertilization and a commit-ment to a circular economy it is imperative to find effective on-farm treatments of slurry that maximizes its fertilization val-ue and minimizes risk to health and the environment. We compared the effect of storage, composting, and anaerobic diges-tion on pig slurry microbiome, resistome and nutrient content using shotgun metagenomic sequencing and HT-qPCR arrays. Our results identified that each treatment method had advantages and disadvantages, depending on the parameter measured. Storage and composting were optimal for the removal of human pathogens and anaerobic digestion (AD) for the reduction in antimicrobial resistance (AMR) genes and mobile genetic elements. The nitrogen content was increased in storage and AD and reduced in composting. Our data indicates that composting provided the reduction in risk to human health and the envi-ronment. Network analysis revealed reducing Proteobacteria and Bacteroidetes while increasing Firmicutes reduced AMR content. This novel study provides a data driven decision tree to determine the optimal treatment for best practice to mini-mize pathogen, AMR, and optimum nutrient transfer from slurry to environment.

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Treatment of Manure and Digestate Liquid Fractions Using Membranes: Opportunities and Challenges

Cited by 28 publications

References 170 publications

Phosphorus retention and agronomic efficiency of refined manure-based digestate—A review

Phosphorus retention and agronomic efficiency of refined manure-based digestate—A review

Utilization of Thermophilic Aerobic Oxidation and Electrocoagulation to Improve Fertilizer Quality from Mixed Manure Influent

Data based slurry treatment decision tree to minimise antibiotic resistance and pathogen transfer while maximising nutrient recycling

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