Publication detail

Thermal Thickening of Waste Water from Biogas Plants: Current State and Perspectives

VONDRA, M.

Original Title

Thermal Thickening of Waste Water from Biogas Plants: Current State and Perspectives

Type

abstract

Language

English

Original Abstract

Increased digestate production is associated with the boom of biogas plants in recent years. Digestate is a by-product of biogas production, consisting of water and residues of biological material that did not decompose during the anaerobic digestion process. The digestate from agricultural biogas stations is typically exported to the field and applied as an organic fertilizer. Although the digestate is a good fertilizer, the concentration of the main nutrients (N, P, K) is low compared to mineral fertilizers. Field application of digestate requires a multiple passage of the spreading trucks, thus increasing fuel cost and machine maintenance, not to mention possible damage to the soil structure. Problems with the use of digestate occur especially in areas with increased intensity of agricultural production, which are typical of high concentrations of fertilizers in soil and groundwater respectively. In these areas there is a shortage of agricultural land that could be utilized for the digestate application. The solution is only an extremely costly transportation of digestate to remote areas. Vacuum evaporation is a proven technology for digestate thickening with the advantage of simple construction, robust operation and waste heat utilization. Evaporators are capable of significant dewatering of the liquid digestate. However, high investment cost, chemicals consumption and utilization of subsidized and thus expensive electricity are the main obstacles for its expansion in the EU. To be acceptable for plant operators, beside price and reliability, a vacuum evaporator must meet all requirements for its product’s (concentrate, separated water) quality. This study presents current state-of-the-art in digestate thickening by means of vacuum evaporation. Pros and cons of different treatment systems are discussed with main focus on theeconomic aspects.

Keywords

Biogas Plants; Liquid Digestate; Vacuum Evaporation; Ammonia Recovery; Anaerobic Digestion

Authors

VONDRA, M.

Released

26. 8. 2020

Location

Volos

ISBN

2653-8911

Periodical

Book of Abstracts of the Energy, Sustainability and Climate Change Conference

Year of study

7

Number

1

State

Hellenic Republic

Pages from

8

Pages to

8

Pages count

1

URL

http://escc.uth.gr/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/ESCC-2020_Book-of-Abstracts.pdf

BibTex

@misc{BUT169079,
  author="Marek {Vondra}",
  title="Thermal Thickening of Waste Water from Biogas Plants: Current State and Perspectives",
  year="2020",
  journal="Book of Abstracts of the Energy, Sustainability and Climate Change Conference",
  volume="7",
  number="1",
  pages="8--8",
  address="Volos",
  issn="2653-8911",
  url="http://escc.uth.gr/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/ESCC-2020_Book-of-Abstracts.pdf",
  note="abstract"
}