Biogas Residues in substitution for Chemical Fertilizers

To provide food and feed, farming systems hinge on chemical fertilizers causing nitrogen pollution of the ecosystems. The multipurpose process of biomethanation has the potential to facilitate the transition towards circular agriculture. We compared the agricultural performance of biogas residues (BRs) and chemical fertilizers (CFs) while monitoring nitrate accumulation under repeated application on a grassland in Belgium during 2013-2018. BRs demonstrated the potential to mitigate nitrate leaching while achieving similar yield and N uptake compared to CFs. The agricultural and environmental benefits of BRs advocate for their suitability as biofertilizers and substitutes for CFs in similar grassland systems.

Coupling the environmentally sound multipurpose process of biomethanation to sustainable agriculture could alleviate agricultural nitrogen pollution and cease the dependancy of farming systems on chemical fertilizers while contributing towards climate change mitigation. The main goal of this study was to compare the agricultural performance of BRs and CFs while monitoring the residual nitrate accumulation in the soil under repeated application (Tsachidou et al., 2019; 2019).