Environmental implications, potential value, and future of food-waste anaerobic digestate management: A review

James O'Connor; Bede S Mickan; Jörg Rinklebe; Hocheol Song; Kadambot H M Siddique; Hailong Wang; M B Kirkham; Nanthi S Bolan

doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.115519

Environmental implications, potential value, and future of food-waste anaerobic digestate management: A review

J Environ Manage. 2022 Sep 15:318:115519. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.115519. Epub 2022 Jun 15.

Authors

James O'Connor¹, Bede S Mickan², Jörg Rinklebe³, Hocheol Song⁴, Kadambot H M Siddique⁵, Hailong Wang⁶, M B Kirkham⁷, Nanthi S Bolan⁸

Affiliations

¹ School of Agriculture and Environment, The University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, 6001, Australia.
² School of Agriculture and Environment, The University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, 6001, Australia; The UWA Institute of Agriculture, The University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, 6001, Australia.
³ University of Wuppertal, School of Architecture and Civil Engineering, Institute of Foundation Engineering, Water and Waste Management, Laboratory of Soil and Groundwater Management, Pauluskirchstraße 7, 42285, Wuppertal, Germany; Department of Environment, Energy and Geoinformatics, Sejong University, Seoul, 05006, Republic of Korea. Electronic address: rinklebe@uni-wuppertal.de.
⁴ Department of Environment, Energy and Geoinformatics, Sejong University, Seoul, 05006, Republic of Korea.
⁵ The UWA Institute of Agriculture, The University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, 6001, Australia.
⁶ Biochar Engineering Technology Research Center of Guangdong Province, School of Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Foshan University, Foshan, 528000, China; Key laboratory of Soil Contamination Bioremediation of Zhejiang Province, Zhejiang A&F University, Hangzhou, 311300, China.
⁷ Department of Agronomy, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS, 66506-5501, USA.
⁸ School of Agriculture and Environment, The University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, 6001, Australia; The UWA Institute of Agriculture, The University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, 6001, Australia. Electronic address: Nanthi.Bolan@uwa.edu.au.

PMID: 35716555
DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.115519

Abstract

Globally, the valorisation of food waste into digestate through the process of anaerobic digestion is becoming increasingly popular. As a result, a large amount of food-waste digestate will need to be properly utilised. The utilisation of anaerobic digestion for fertiliser and alternative uses is essential to obtain a circular bioeconomy. The review aims to examine the environmental management of food-waste digestate, the value of digestate as a fertiliser and soil conditioner, and the emerging uses and improvements for post-anaerobic digestion reuse of digestate. Odour emissions, contaminants in food waste, emission and leaching of nutrients into the environment, and the regulations, policies, and voluntary initiatives of anaerobic digestion are evaluated in the review. Food-waste digestate can provide essential nutrients, carbon, and bio-stimulants to soils and increase yield. Recently, promising research has shown that digestates can be used in hydroponic systems and potentially replace the use of synthetic fertilisers. The integration of anaerobic digestion with emerging uses, such as extraction of value-added products, algae cultivation, biochar and hydrochar production, can further reduce inhibitory sources of digestate and provide additional economic opportunities for businesses. Moreover, the end-product digestate from these technologies can also be more suitable for use in soil application and hydroponic use.

Keywords: Digestate; Environmental management; Fertiliser; Food waste; Post-treatment.

Publication types

Review

MeSH terms

Anaerobiosis
Fertilizers*
Food
Refuse Disposal*
Soil

Substances

Fertilizers
Soil