The Use of Flat Ceramic Membranes for Purification of the Liquid Fraction of the Digestate from Municipal Waste Biogas Plants

Agnieszka Urbanowska and Małgorzata Kabsch-Korbutowicz
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Agnieszka Urbanowska: Department of Environment Protection Engineering, Faculty of Environmental Engineering, Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, 50-370 Wroclaw, Poland
Małgorzata Kabsch-Korbutowicz: Department of Environment Protection Engineering, Faculty of Environmental Engineering, Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, 50-370 Wroclaw, Poland

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 13, 1-12

Abstract: Due to the rising water deficit in agriculture, digestate is increasingly being considered not only as an alternative fertiliser but also as a potential source of water. The use of recycled water for crop irrigation requires that it be treated in such a way that contaminants from the fermented biomass are not returned to the environment. Membrane processes can provide promising results in this regard. This study seeks to achieve membrane filtration using flat ceramic membranes for effective digestate liquid fraction treatment from a municipal waste biogas plant. Membranes of 1, 5, 15, and 50 kDa, and 0.14 and 0.45 µm are examined. The results obtained show that the application of a sedimentation process, as a preliminary step in the purification of the digestate, allows for a significant reduction in the content of contaminants in the solution. By analysing the effectiveness of the liquid fraction of the digestate purification in the sedimentation-membrane filtration process using flat ceramic membranes, it can be stated that all the membranes tested can be applied in the digestate purification. With an increase in the cut-off value, a deterioration in the quality of the digestate can be observed. The use of the sedimentation process before the membrane process not only improves the final quality of the digestate but also reduces the intensity of membrane fouling.

Keywords: digestate; biogas plant; pressure-driven membrane processes; ceramic flat membranes (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: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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