Classical Batch Distillation of Anaerobic Digestate to Isolate Ammonium Bicarbonate: Membrane Not Necessary!
The excessive mineralization of organic molecules during anaerobic fermentation increases the availability of nitrogen and carbon. For this reason, the development of downstream processing technologies is required to better manage ammonia and carbon dioxide emissions during the storage and land appl...
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MDPI AG
2024-11-01
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| author | Alejandro Moure Abelenda Jonas Baltrusaitis |
| author_facet | Alejandro Moure Abelenda Jonas Baltrusaitis |
| author_sort | Alejandro Moure Abelenda |
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| description | The excessive mineralization of organic molecules during anaerobic fermentation increases the availability of nitrogen and carbon. For this reason, the development of downstream processing technologies is required to better manage ammonia and carbon dioxide emissions during the storage and land application of the resulting soil organic amendment. The present work investigated classical distillation as a technology for valorizing ammoniacal nitrogen (NH<sub>4</sub><sup>+</sup>-N) in anaerobic digestate. The results implied that the direct isolation of ammonium bicarbonate (NH<sub>4</sub>HCO<sub>3</sub>) was possible when applying the reactive distillation to the food waste digestate (FWD) with a high content of NH<sub>4</sub><sup>+</sup>-N, while the addition of antifoam to the agrowaste digestate (AWD) was necessary to be able to produce an aqueous solution of NH<sub>4</sub>HCO<sub>3</sub> as the distillate. The reason was that the extraction of NH<sub>4</sub>HCO<sub>3</sub> from the AWD required a higher temperature (>95 °C) and duration (i.e., steady state in batch operation) than the recovery of the inorganic fertilizer from the FWD. The titration method, when applied to the depleted digestate, offered the quickest way of monitoring the reactive distillation because the buffer capacity of the distillate was much higher. The isolation of NH<sub>4</sub>HCO<sub>3</sub> from the FWD was attained in a transient mode at a temperature below 90 °C (i.e., while heating up to reach the desired distillation temperature or cooling down once the batch distillation was finished). For the operating conditions to be regarded as techno-economically feasible, they should be attained in the anaerobic digestion plant by integrating the heat harvested from the engines, which convert the biogas into electricity. |
| format | Article |
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| spelling | doaj-art-e9314c511a4e4be3ba7ccdd2e2a08f372025-08-20T02:08:08ZengMDPI AGBioengineering2306-53542024-11-011111115210.3390/bioengineering11111152Classical Batch Distillation of Anaerobic Digestate to Isolate Ammonium Bicarbonate: Membrane Not Necessary!Alejandro Moure Abelenda0Jonas Baltrusaitis1School of Engineering, Lancaster University, Lancaster LA1 4YW, UKDepartment of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Lehigh University, B336 Iacocca Hall, 111 Research Drive, Bethlehem, PA 18015, USAThe excessive mineralization of organic molecules during anaerobic fermentation increases the availability of nitrogen and carbon. For this reason, the development of downstream processing technologies is required to better manage ammonia and carbon dioxide emissions during the storage and land application of the resulting soil organic amendment. The present work investigated classical distillation as a technology for valorizing ammoniacal nitrogen (NH<sub>4</sub><sup>+</sup>-N) in anaerobic digestate. The results implied that the direct isolation of ammonium bicarbonate (NH<sub>4</sub>HCO<sub>3</sub>) was possible when applying the reactive distillation to the food waste digestate (FWD) with a high content of NH<sub>4</sub><sup>+</sup>-N, while the addition of antifoam to the agrowaste digestate (AWD) was necessary to be able to produce an aqueous solution of NH<sub>4</sub>HCO<sub>3</sub> as the distillate. The reason was that the extraction of NH<sub>4</sub>HCO<sub>3</sub> from the AWD required a higher temperature (>95 °C) and duration (i.e., steady state in batch operation) than the recovery of the inorganic fertilizer from the FWD. The titration method, when applied to the depleted digestate, offered the quickest way of monitoring the reactive distillation because the buffer capacity of the distillate was much higher. The isolation of NH<sub>4</sub>HCO<sub>3</sub> from the FWD was attained in a transient mode at a temperature below 90 °C (i.e., while heating up to reach the desired distillation temperature or cooling down once the batch distillation was finished). For the operating conditions to be regarded as techno-economically feasible, they should be attained in the anaerobic digestion plant by integrating the heat harvested from the engines, which convert the biogas into electricity.https://www.mdpi.com/2306-5354/11/11/1152crystallizationcommercial-grade fertilizermanure managementcircular economymitigation technology |
| spellingShingle | Alejandro Moure Abelenda Jonas Baltrusaitis Classical Batch Distillation of Anaerobic Digestate to Isolate Ammonium Bicarbonate: Membrane Not Necessary! Bioengineering crystallization commercial-grade fertilizer manure management circular economy mitigation technology |
| title | Classical Batch Distillation of Anaerobic Digestate to Isolate Ammonium Bicarbonate: Membrane Not Necessary! |
| title_full | Classical Batch Distillation of Anaerobic Digestate to Isolate Ammonium Bicarbonate: Membrane Not Necessary! |
| title_fullStr | Classical Batch Distillation of Anaerobic Digestate to Isolate Ammonium Bicarbonate: Membrane Not Necessary! |
| title_full_unstemmed | Classical Batch Distillation of Anaerobic Digestate to Isolate Ammonium Bicarbonate: Membrane Not Necessary! |
| title_short | Classical Batch Distillation of Anaerobic Digestate to Isolate Ammonium Bicarbonate: Membrane Not Necessary! |
| title_sort | classical batch distillation of anaerobic digestate to isolate ammonium bicarbonate membrane not necessary |
| topic | crystallization commercial-grade fertilizer manure management circular economy mitigation technology |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2306-5354/11/11/1152 |
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