A review of advances in valorization and post-treatment of anaerobic digestion liquid fraction effluent
Themistoklis Sfetsas, Stefanos Patsatzis, Afroditi Chioti, Alexandros Kopteropoulos, Georgia Dimitropoulou, Vasiliki Tsioni, Thomas Kotsopoulos
Abstract
Traditionally, digestate is considered a waste, which is used as fertiliser in the agriculture industry. Recent studies focus on increasing the profitability of digestate by extracting reusable nutrients to promote biogas plants cost-effectiveness, sustainable management and circular economy. This review focuses on the post-treatment and valorization of liquor which is produced by solid-liquid fractioning of digestate. Nutrient recovery and removal from liquor are possible through mechanical, physicochemical and biological procedures. The processes discussed involve complex procedures that differ in economic value, feasibility, legislative restrictions and performance. The parameters that should be considered to employ these techniques are influenced by liquor characteristics, topography, climate conditions and available resources. These are key parameters to keep in mind during designing and manufacturing a biogas plant. In the following chapters, a discussion on available liquor treatment methods takes place. The present study examines the critical aspects of the available liquor treatment methods.