Evaluation of Kitchen Waste Recycling as Organic N-Fertiliser for Sustainable Agriculture under Cool and Warm Seasons

Ksawery Kuligowski (), Izabela Konkol, Lesław Świerczek, Katarzyna Chojnacka, Adam Cenian and Szymon Szufa
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Ksawery Kuligowski: Physical Aspects of Ecoenergy Department, The Institute of Fluid-Flow Machinery, Polish Academy of Sciences, Fiszera 14 St., 80-231 Gdansk, Poland
Izabela Konkol: Physical Aspects of Ecoenergy Department, The Institute of Fluid-Flow Machinery, Polish Academy of Sciences, Fiszera 14 St., 80-231 Gdansk, Poland
Lesław Świerczek: Physical Aspects of Ecoenergy Department, The Institute of Fluid-Flow Machinery, Polish Academy of Sciences, Fiszera 14 St., 80-231 Gdansk, Poland
Katarzyna Chojnacka: Department of Advanced Material Technology, Faculty of Chemistry, Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, M. Smoluchowskiego 25 St., 50-372 Wroclaw, Poland
Adam Cenian: Physical Aspects of Ecoenergy Department, The Institute of Fluid-Flow Machinery, Polish Academy of Sciences, Fiszera 14 St., 80-231 Gdansk, Poland
Szymon Szufa: Faculty of Process and Environmental Engineering, Lodz University of Technology, Wolczanska 213 St., 90-001 Lodz, Poland

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 10, 1-22

Abstract: Kitchen waste could be processed and recycled into safe fertilizers/soil improvers for sustainable agriculture through different methods: (1) Dried pellets from model kitchen waste treated with anaerobic effective microorganisms; and (2) Anaerobically digested kitchen waste. For comparison, a commercial mineral fertilizer was used. These methods were applied in two separate glasshouse experiments: one under cool (mainly winter) conditions (X–IV) and one under warm (mainly summer) conditions (VI–X) consisting of 3–4 subsequent harvests in northern Poland. Comparing the food waste agronomic performance after anaerobic digestion and effective microorganism treatments, especially under different climatic conditions, is a novel approach. Kitchen waste served as a much better fertilizer than mineral fertilizer, but only during the cool season. In addition, it provided 20–40% more plant yields for dosages >120 kg N/ha and a similar N uptake. In the warm season, in comparison to effective microorganism-incubated kitchen waste, its anaerobic digestion improved the relative agronomic effectiveness twice after 30 days of growth (82% versus 43%). However, the total effectiveness for anaerobically digested kitchen waste versus pelleted and effective microorganism-incubated kitchen waste was 32% versus 27% (N utilization-wise) and 36% versus 21% (plant biomass yield-wise). The Monod kinetic model was applied for the internal efficiency of N utilization; for the best fitting procedure, R 2 > 0.96 for the cool season and R 2 > 0.92 for the warm season. Kitchen waste introduced to the soil provided better soil properties than mineral fertilizer. The study contributes to the biological systems for waste recycling in agriculture, bioproduction processes, and the global food chain.

Keywords: food waste; kitchen waste; nitrogen uptake; ryegrass growth; agronomic effectiveness; Monod kinetics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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