Project description
Organic recovery made possible for small plants
Digestate – the material remaining after the anaerobic digestion of a biodegradable feedstock – is primarily used to improve the physical qualities of soil. However, constraints such as the lack of available cost-effective equipment currently prevent small plants from turning digestate into bio-fertiliser products. The EU-funded NOMAD project aims to overcome this obstacle by developing a novel, small-scale tech solution that will recover fibre and specific nutrients from the digestate. These nutrients can then be used to formulate high performance bio-fertiliser products. Given the solution’s mobility and modularity, it could serve multiple plants and result in shared costs that make it more viable than installing systems at individual plants.
Objective
NOMAD gathers partners from China, Greece, the UK, Italy, Romania, Malta and the Netherlands to develop an innovative, small-scale tech solution designed to recover fibre and specific nutrients from digestate for formulation into high performance bio-fertiliser products. It addresses key digestate issues including environmental and health risks, handling, variable composition and the increasing volume being produced. Currently, turning digestate into bio-fertiliser products is not feasible for most small plants due to lack of available, cost-effective equipment, and the expense of achieving end of waste standard PAS110.
Building on partners’ previous work, the proposed technology will utilise heat from combustion of waste timber and recovered energy from a collection vehicle to improve energy efficiency while simultaneously addressing regulatory compliance. Specific nutrients will be extracted from the liquid fraction and water recovered for reuse. The remaining sludge will be blended & composted with ash (derived from waste timber combustion) and biochar to produce optimised, nutrient-balanced soil conditioners. The model rests on the solution’s mobility and modularity as one unit could serve multiple plants, tackling digestate from a range of feedstocks with shared costs making it more viable than installing systems at individual plants.
Other project activities include stakeholder engagement; field trials across contrasting regions; policy recommendations; a comprehensive impact assessment of the business model; and dissemination of key outputs. The project aims to replace non-renewable mineral fertilisers with low-carbon, organic equivalents; minimise environmental and health risks associated with digestate; create a new, disruptive business model for rural decentralised AD; and achieve a more favourable climate for circular economy development through successful stakeholder engagement.
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Funding Scheme
IA - Innovation actionCoordinator
57001 Thermi Thessaloniki
Greece