A Bio-Refinery Concept for N and P Recovery—A Chance for Biogas Plant Development

Magdalena Szymańska, Ewa Szara, Tomasz Sosulski, Adam Wąs, Gijs W. P. Van Pruissen, René L. Cornelissen, Mieczysław Borowik and Marcin Konkol
Additional contact information
Magdalena Szymańska: Department of Soil Environment Sciences, Warsaw University of Life Sciences–SGGW, Nowoursynowska 159, 02–776 Warsaw, Poland
Ewa Szara: Department of Soil Environment Sciences, Warsaw University of Life Sciences–SGGW, Nowoursynowska 159, 02–776 Warsaw, Poland
Tomasz Sosulski: Department of Soil Environment Sciences, Warsaw University of Life Sciences–SGGW, Nowoursynowska 159, 02–776 Warsaw, Poland
Adam Wąs: Department of Economics and Organisation of Enterprises, Warsaw University of Life Sciences—SGGW, Nowoursynowska 166, 02–787 Warsaw, Poland
Gijs W. P. Van Pruissen: Cornelissen Consulting Services BV, Binnensingel 3, 7411 PL Deventer, The Netherlands
René L. Cornelissen: Cornelissen Consulting Services BV, Binnensingel 3, 7411 PL Deventer, The Netherlands
Mieczysław Borowik: New Chemical Syntheses Institute, Al. Tysiąclecia P.P. 13a, 24–110 Pulawy, Poland
Marcin Konkol: New Chemical Syntheses Institute, Al. Tysiąclecia P.P. 13a, 24–110 Pulawy, Poland

Energies, 2019, vol. 12, issue 1, 1-10

Abstract: Biogas is an alternative source of energy for fossil fuels. In the process of transforming organic materials into biogas significant amounts of valuable digestate are produced. In order to make the whole process sustainable digestate should be utilized this is a constraining factor in the development of the biogas industry. Consequently, there is an on-going search for new technologies to process digestate, allowing to broaden the range of possible ways of digestate utilization. One of such possibilities is technology of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) recovery from the anaerobic digestate. In this study results of physicochemical analysis of materials flowing through the farm-scale bio-refinery producing struvite (STR) and ammonium sulphate (AS) are presented. Struvite was precipitated from the liquid fraction of digestate (LFDS). Ammonia was bound by sulphuric acid resulting in obtaining ammonium sulphate. The STR obtained was of medium purity and contained other macronutrients and micronutrients that further enhanced its agronomic value. The P recovery effectiveness, counted as the difference between the P tot content in the material before and after STR precipitation was 43.8%. The AS was characterized by relatively low N tot and S tot content. The N tot recovery efficiency reached 43.2%. The study showed that struvite precipitation and ammonia stripping technologies can be used for processing digestate however, the processes efficiency should be improved.

Keywords: biogas plant; struvite precipitation; ammonia stripping; circular bioeconomy; digestate treatment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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