IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v17y2025i8p3289-d1630014.html

Conditioning Biomass for Biogas Plants: Innovative Pre-Treatment and Digestate Valorization Techniques to Enhance Soil Health and Fertility

Author

Listed:
  • Anna Grobelak

    (Faculty of Infrastructure and Environment, Czestochowa University of Technology, Dąbrowskiego 73, 42-200 Czestochowa, Poland)

  • Beata Bień

    (Faculty of Infrastructure and Environment, Czestochowa University of Technology, Dąbrowskiego 73, 42-200 Czestochowa, Poland)

  • Daria Sławczyk

    (Faculty of Infrastructure and Environment, Czestochowa University of Technology, Dąbrowskiego 73, 42-200 Czestochowa, Poland)

  • Jurand Bień

    (Faculty of Infrastructure and Environment, Czestochowa University of Technology, Dąbrowskiego 73, 42-200 Czestochowa, Poland)

Abstract

In line with the concept of sustainable agriculture, efforts should be made to increase the green energy yield and minimize the environmental impact of mineral fertilizers, maintaining high agricultural productivity. In alignment with the principles of sustainable development, plant biomass-based green energy is considered promising. A deep understanding of and enhancements to the anaerobic digestion process using plant biomass, along with digestate post-treatment for regenerative agriculture improvements, are key elements to achieve sustainability goals. This article describes innovative methods for plant biomass pre-treatment aimed at enhancing biogas yield and the fertilizing potential of the obtained digestate. Moreover, valuable insights into the process of digestate conditioning for valorization are discussed. Among these, separation and digestate stabilization techniques are emphasized. Furthermore, this article provides a comprehensive source of knowledge on the impact of digestate on soil quality, fertility, soil organic carbon sequestration, and microbiota. The findings contribute to a broader understanding of how digestate impacts regenerative agriculture.

Suggested Citation

  • Anna Grobelak & Beata Bień & Daria Sławczyk & Jurand Bień, 2025. "Conditioning Biomass for Biogas Plants: Innovative Pre-Treatment and Digestate Valorization Techniques to Enhance Soil Health and Fertility," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(8), pages 1-29, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:8:p:3289-:d:1630014
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/8/3289/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/8/3289/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. René Heller & Christina Brandhorst & Benedikt Hülsemann & Andreas Lemmer & Hans Oechsner, 2023. "Comparison of Different Mechanical Pretreatment Methods for the Anaerobic Digestion of Landscape Management Grass," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(24), pages 1-26, December.
    2. Skrzypczak, Dawid & Trzaska, Krzysztof & Mikula, Katarzyna & Gil, Filip & Izydorczyk, Grzegorz & Mironiuk, Małgorzata & Polomska, Xymena & Moustakas, Konstantinos & Witek-Krowiak, Anna & Chojnacka, Ka, 2023. "Conversion of anaerobic digestates from biogas plants: Laboratory fertilizer formulation, scale-up and demonstration of applicative properties on plants," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 203(C), pages 506-517.
    3. Anna Grobelak & Klaudia Całus-Makowska & Anna Jasińska & Marek Klimasz & Aleksandra Wypart-Pawul & Dominika Augustajtys & Estera Baor & Daria Sławczyk & Aneta Kowalska, 2024. "Environmental Impacts and Contaminants Management in Sewage Sludge-to-Energy and Fertilizer Technologies: Current Trends and Future Directions," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(19), pages 1-28, October.
    4. Steliana Rodino & Ruxandra Pop & Cristina Sterie & Andreea Giuca & Eduard Dumitru, 2023. "Developing an Evaluation Framework for Circular Agriculture: A Pathway to Sustainable Farming," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-24, October.
    5. Scherzinger, Marvin & Kaltschmitt, Martin, 2021. "Thermal pre-treatment options to enhance anaerobic digestibility – A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    6. Pengjiao Tian & Binbin Gong & Kaijian Bi & Yuxin Liu & Jing Ma & Xiqing Wang & Zhangsun Ouyang & Xian Cui, 2023. "Anaerobic Co-Digestion of Pig Manure and Rice Straw: Optimization of Process Parameters for Enhancing Biogas Production and System Stability," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(1), pages 1-14, January.
    7. Alvyra Slepetiene & Mykola Kochiieru & Linas Jurgutis & Audrone Mankeviciene & Aida Skersiene & Olgirda Belova, 2022. "The Effect of Anaerobic Digestate on the Soil Organic Carbon and Humified Carbon Fractions in Different Land-Use Systems in Lithuania," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-17, January.
    8. Remigio Paradelo & Jose Navarro-Pedreño & Bruno Glaser & Anna Grobelak & Aneta Kowalska & Bal Ram Singh, 2023. "Potential and Constraints of Use of Organic Amendments from Agricultural Residues for Improvement of Soil Properties," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(1), pages 1-19, December.
    9. Aneta Kowalska & Anna Grobelak & Åsgeir R. Almås & Bal Ram Singh, 2020. "Effect of Biowastes on Soil Remediation, Plant Productivity and Soil Organic Carbon Sequestration: A Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-24, November.
    10. Marta Wiśniewska & Andrzej Kulig & Krystyna Lelicińska-Serafin, 2021. "Odour Nuisance at Municipal Waste Biogas Plants and the Effect of Feedstock Modification on the Circular Economy—A Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(20), pages 1-22, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Beata Bień & Anna Grobelak & Jurand Bień & Daria Sławczyk & Kamil Kozłowski & Klaudia Wysokowska & Mateusz Rak, 2025. "Dry Anaerobic Digestion of Selectively Collected Biowaste: Technological Advances, Process Optimization and Energy Recovery Perspectives," Energies, MDPI, vol. 18(17), pages 1-35, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hossain, Md. Sanowar & Emon, Abir Shahorior & Mhamud, Rifat & Robin, Hasan Muhommod & Mourshed, Monjur & Rahman, Md. Al Amin, 2025. "Anaerobic co-digestion of cow dung and poultry litter for sustainable biogas production: A green energy solution for Bangladesh's garment industry," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 339(C).
    2. Aneta Kowalska & Robert Biczak, 2025. "Phytoremediation and Environmental Law: Harnessing Biomass and Microbes to Restore Soils and Advance Biofuel Innovation," Energies, MDPI, vol. 18(7), pages 1-27, April.
    3. Ryszard Dachowski & Anna Stepien, 2023. "Effect of Organic Compounds on the Special Properties and the Microstructure of Autoclaved Brick," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(4), pages 1-22, February.
    4. Aneta Kowalska & Marek Kucbel & Anna Grobelak, 2021. "Potential and Mechanisms for Stable C Storage in the Post-Mining Soils under Long-Term Study in Mitigation of Climate Change," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(22), pages 1-15, November.
    5. Maja Radziemska & Mariusz Zygmunt Gusiatin & Zbigniew Mazur & Algirdas Radzevičius & Agnieszka Bęś & Raimondas Šadzevičius & Jiri Holatko & Midona Dapkienė & Inga Adamonytė & Martin Brtnicky, 2023. "Composite Biochar with Municipal Sewage Sludge Compost—A New Approach to Phytostabilization of PTE Industrially Contaminated Soils," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(4), pages 1-11, February.
    6. Maurizio Bressan & Elena Campagnoli & Carlo Giovanni Ferro & Valter Giaretto, 2023. "A Mass Balance-Based Method for the Anaerobic Digestion of Rice Straw," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(11), pages 1-19, May.
    7. Albert Banunle & Felix Kpenekuu, 2025. "Socioecological Factors and Practical Challenges to the Adoption of Circular Agriculture and Agroecological Techniques By Climate-Vulnerable Farmers," Circular Economy and Sustainability, Springer, vol. 5(5), pages 4487-4511, October.
    8. Otton K. Roubinek & Anna Wilinska-Lisowska & Magdalena Jasinska & Andrzej G. Chmielewski & Krzysztof Czerwionka, 2023. "Production of Biogas from Distillation Residue as a Waste Material from the Distillery Industry in Poland," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(7), pages 1-15, March.
    9. Aadila Cayenne & Hinrich Uellendahl, 2025. "Anaerobic Digestion of the Halophyte Salicornia ramosissima in Co-Digestion with Swine Manure in Lab-Scale Batch and Continuous Reactor Tests," Energies, MDPI, vol. 18(12), pages 1-17, June.
    10. Murali, Rohit & Bywater, Angela & Dolat, Meshkat & Dekhici, Benaissa & Zarei, Mohammadamin & Hilton, Lauren & Sadhukhan, Jhuma & Zhang, Dongda & Short, Michael, 2026. "Anaerobic digestion site-wide optimisation and decision-making: An industrial perspective and review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 226(PD).
    11. Steliana Rodino & Rodica Chetroiu & Vili Dragomir, 2025. "An Analysis of the Circular Economy Performance of the Romanian Agri-Food System," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 15(21), pages 1-25, October.
    12. Tihomir Novaković & Dragana Novaković & Dragan Milić & Mirela Tomaš Simin & Maja Radišić & Mladen Radišić & Srboljub Nikolić & Milan Mihajlović, 2025. "Assessment of Technical and Eco-Efficiency of Dairy Farms in the Republic of Serbia: Towards the Implementation of a Circular Economy," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 15(8), pages 1-23, April.
    13. Federica Scandurra & Roberta Salomone & Sandra Caeiro & Ana Pinto Moura, 2025. "Circular Economy in the Agri-Food Sector: Insights into Portuguese Companies’ Practices," Circular Economy and Sustainability, Springer, vol. 5(1), pages 25-50, February.
    14. Georgia Parastatidou & Vassilios Chatzis, 2024. "A Meta-Indicator for the Assessment of Misleading Sustainability Claims," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(23), pages 1-15, December.
    15. Niya, Btissam & Azaroual, Salah Eddine & Kaichouh, Salma & Sendide, Khalid & Yaakoubi, Kaoutar & Fal, Soufiane & Rabia, Reda & Beraich, Fatima Zahra & Arouch, Moha & Meftah Kadmiri, Issam, 2024. "Influence of inoculum on process parameters and microbial communities during anaerobic digestion of cattle manure: Insights from metabarcoding analysis," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 231(C).
    16. Marcin Zieliński & Joanna Kazimierowicz & Marcin Dębowski, 2022. "Advantages and Limitations of Anaerobic Wastewater Treatment—Technological Basics, Development Directions, and Technological Innovations," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(1), pages 1-39, December.
    17. Danute Petraityte & Jurgita Ceseviciene & Ausra Arlauskiene & Alvyra Slepetiene & Aida Skersiene & Viktorija Gecaite, 2022. "Variation of Soil Nitrogen, Organic Carbon, and Waxy Wheat Yield Using Liquid Organic and Mineral Fertilizers," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 12(12), pages 1-21, November.
    18. Changsong Zhang & Xueke Zang & Zhenxue Dai & Xiaoying Zhang & Ziqi Ma, 2021. "Remediation Techniques for Cadmium-Contaminated Dredged River Sediments after Land Disposal," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-13, May.
    19. Gabriele Di Giacomo, 2021. "Material and Energy Recovery from the Final Disposal of Organic Waste," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(24), pages 1-2, December.
    20. Arief Abdurrakhman & Lilik Sutiarso & Makhmudun Ainuri & Mirwan Ushada & Md Parvez Islam, 2025. "A Multilayer Perceptron Feedforward Neural Network and Particle Swarm Optimization Algorithm for Optimizing Biogas Production," Energies, MDPI, vol. 18(4), pages 1-30, February.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:8:p:3289-:d:1630014. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.