engleski

Comparison of liquid and solid digestate fractions as replacements for synthetic nitrogen fertilizers in maize production in Croatia

Biogas is a renewable source of energy obtained as a product of anaerobic digestion. This process also produces and disposes large amounts of post-digestion matter, namely digestate. The digestate can be separated into solid and liquid fraction, which may be suitable for land application. This study explores how different digestate fractions affect maize (Zea mays L.) production once applied as a nutrient source in substitution of synthetic fertilizers in Croatia. Both fractions of digestate were obtained from the anaerobic digestation of the mixture of maize silage and liquid cattle manure. A conducted field experiment was carried out in Zagreb with eight different treatments in four repetitions. Apart from the solid and liquid digestate, NPK fertilizer and the liquid cattle manure were also used in the field experiment to enable comparison between different fertilizers. The experiment results showed that the liquid digestate achieves comparable results to the mineral fertilizer on the maize yield. This positive effect, combined with the economic advantage of digestate, proves to be a sufficient reason to promote digestate as the next-generation soil improver.

digestate ; maize ; yield

Acknowledgment The research is done as a part of the Systemic project that receives funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Framework Programme for Research and Innovation under Grant Agreement no. 730400. See www.systemicproject.eu and www.biorefine.eu/projects/systemic for more information.