Testing the Impact of Waste from Anaerobic Digestion (Enriched with an Organic Component) on the Quality of Agricultural Land

Abstract

Waste from anaerobic digestion is considered as a mineral fertilizer and it is usually applied to agricultural land. The aim of our attempt was to enrich this waste from anaerobic digestion (digestate) with an organic component (in our case represented by haylage). For this purpose, we made different mixtures of digestate and haylage in different weight ratios. In the field trial, the effect of these mixtures on the soil, under standard agricultural conditions, was monitored. Selected accessible nutrients (P, K, Mg, Mn, Ca) and the amount of carbon and nitrogen in the soil were monitored. The results of the laboratory tests confirmed that the areas where the sowing and digestate mixtures were applied showed greater amounts of macro- and micronutrients in plant-accessible forms than the surface fertilized only with digestate or areas fertilized only with standard fertilizers.

Keywords

• biogas plant
• biogas
• whole digestate
• macronutrients
• micronutrients