Digestate_100% - Innovative integrated system for digestate use in fertigation
To develop an innovative integrated system for digestate treatment and use in fertigation, with the aim of optimizing the agronomical use of digestate from agricultural biogas plants fed by crops and livestock manure.
Applications of raw digestate before seeding and the micro-filtered digestate in fertigation, should allow to replace completely the fertilization with mineral fertilizers, closing the nutrients cycle in an optimal way. For this reason the name of the Operational Group is “Digestate_100%”, signifying that fertilization of crops can be carried out by means of the only return of the digestate to soil.
• Implementation and monitoring of the integrated system for the treatment and the fertigation use of digestate.
• Fertilization of crops with just digestate, as it is distributed before seeding (raw digestate) and through fertigation (micro-filtered digestate), with assessment of crop yields and product quality.
• Assessment of the economic and environmental sustainability (Carbon footprint) of the new system proposed, compared with the conventional one.
• Training, technical-scientific and educational dissemination, including through the EIPAGRI network.
The innovation proposed by the Operational Group is technical innovation aimed at allowing the use of micro-filtered digestate through fertigation (drip irrigation). To this end, raw digestate is first treated by solid-liquid separation using a classic screw press separator, than the clarified phase is micro-filtered and the microfiltered liquid is used in fertigation.
The micro-filtered digestate, mixed with irrigation water, is distributed through drip irrigation on maize, typically irrigated crop on which water and nutrients shortages are major stressors that can significantly reduce the quantity and quality of the products.
To date, in the Emilia-Romagna region, it is estimated an annual availability of about 5 million tonnes of digestate from agricultural biogas plants. Despite these large quantities, fertigation with digestate is a practice not yet widespread because the chemical-physical characteristics of digestate, albeit already clarified through conventional solid-liquid separation, are such as to cause problems of clogging of the nozzles in the drip irrigation system.
The possibility to distribute the digestate through fertigation on growing crops permits to maximize the nutrients use efficiency and reduce, or avoid, the use of mineral fertilizers, thus improving the nutrients farm balance and the impact of farm practices on water quality.
Considering the OG results, fertigation with microfiltered digestate by means of drip lines is not only a technically feasible solution, but also sustainable from an economic and environmental point of view.
Injecting microfiltered digestate into the drip lines allows the fertilizing properties to be enhanced thanks to a type of distribution that can follow the crop needs in progress and that minimizes nitrogen losses to the atmosphere. This technique, in addition to reduced energy consumption compared to more traditional sprinkler irrigation, does not cause soil compaction and is well suited to conservation tillage practices. Its application, however, requires a careful evaluation of the "logistics" of the digestate: storage capacity for microfiltered, transfer to the field (via pipe or tanks), possible need for temporary storage at field.
Digestato_100% is a technical innovation effectively applicable in farms; a system capable of converting the burden of digestate into a valid business resource. It is potentially useful not only in the field of industrial herbaceous crops but also on horticultural and fruit tree crops, even in organic farming.
The concepts of circular economy become of concrete application in farms.
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DIGESTATO 100
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CRPA
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Fondazione CRPA
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GOI CRPA
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Final conference presentations
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Video with OG partner's interviews
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Final brochure and other publications
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Video made by partner NETAFIM
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Sistema integrato innovativo di impiego del digestato in fertirrigazione
Il gruppo operativo ha messo a punto e validato un sistema integrato innovativo di impiego del digestato in fertirrigazione, applicabile al digestato ottenuto da colture…