Title
Carbon footprint of anaerobic digestion combined with ultrasonic post-treatment of agro-industrial organic residues
Date Issued
15 January 2021
Access level
metadata only access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Publisher(s)
Academic Press
Abstract
Anaerobic digestion (AD) of organic waste, although widely practiced, may require suitable accompanying treatments to enhance the degradability of complex materials. Since these may require significant efforts in terms of energy and chemical demand, careful assessment of their overall environmental sustainability is mandatory to evaluate their full-scale feasibility. The study aims to represent the environmental profile of ultrasonication (US) applied as a post-treatment of anaerobic digestion of agro-industrial organic residues. There is an interest in the US treatment for the processing of complex organic materials prior to AD in order to enhance the hydrolysis of complex organic substrates and increase the biogas yield of the biological process. An attributional, process-based life cycle assessment (LCA) study was applied to quantify and compare the potential environmental impacts of an AD plant, the biogas utilization options as well as the different digestate processing alternatives grouped into a set of 16 scenarios. Based on the results, upgrading of biogas and bio-methane use as vehicle fuel instead of energy generation from CHP or fuel cell was recommended due to the lower impact on GWP. Similarly, composting was a suitable option to reduce environmental impacts compared to belt drying. From the uncertainty analysis, AD without US as post-treatment proves to be more sustainable in terms of GWP compared to when US is used, showing net savings in GHG emissions especially when upgrading of biogas is applied. The analysis provides useful indications to policy makers to define sustainable management alternatives for organic residues as well as identify the environmental advantages associated with biogas utilization and digestate treatment and disposal alternatives.
Volume
278
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Ingeniería ambiental y geológica
Química orgánica
Subjects
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85094605334
PubMed ID
Source
Journal of Environmental Management
ISSN of the container
03014797
Sponsor(s)
Dr. Vosooghnia greatly appreciates the Peruvian Life Cycle Assessment and Industrial Ecology Network (PELCAN) from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Peru who supported him during his six-month research stay in Lima, Peru, as a visiting researcher.
Sources of information:
Directorio de Producción Científica
Scopus