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61,005 resultsShowing papers similar to Material and energy flows of industrial biogas plants in Switzerland in the context of the circular economy
ClearDigestate from Biowaste and Sewage Sludge as Carriers of Microplastic into the Environment: Case Study of a Thermophilic Biogas Plant in Ostrobothnia, Finland
This Finnish study found microplastics in every waste fraction sampled from a thermophilic biogas plant — including reject water and digestate from both biowaste and sewage sludge digestion. Because digestate is commonly spread on agricultural land as a fertilizer, biogas plants represent an underappreciated pathway for microplastics to enter soil ecosystems at scale. The findings highlight a critical gap in microplastic regulation: current wastewater treatment frameworks do not adequately address plastic contamination in biogas waste streams.
Fate of microplastics in a centralized biogas plant treating mainly sewage sludge
Researchers tracked the fate of microplastics through a centralized biogas plant treating sewage sludge, examining how anaerobic digestion and subsequent dewatering partition microplastics between solid and liquid digestate fractions. The study informs efforts to develop safer digestate-based recycled fertilizers that minimize microplastic introduction to agricultural soils, where 20-55% of microplastics entering wastewater treatment plants are estimated to end up in sludge.
Baseline levels of microplastics in agricultural soils obscure the effects of additional microplastics from recycled fertilizers
Researchers investigated whether liquid or solid digestate fertilizer from a Swiss biogas plant adds detectable microplastic loads to agricultural soils above natural background levels. Despite finding microplastics in digestate, treated soil concentrations were not significantly different from the unfertilized control, suggesting high baseline soil microplastic levels obscure the signal from digestate inputs.
Unmasking microplastics in anaerobic digestion: Hidden threats, synergistic pollutants, and biodegradation Frontiers — A comprehensive hotspot review
Researchers reviewed how microplastics disrupt anaerobic digestion — the process used to convert organic waste into biogas — finding that microplastics suppress methane production, harm microbial communities, and carry along other pollutants like antibiotics and heavy metals into the system.
Characteristics, limitations and global regulations in the use of biogas digestate as fertilizer: A comprehensive overview
This review examines the use of biogas digestate, the leftover material from biogas production, as agricultural fertilizer, highlighting both its benefits and risks. While digestate is rich in nutrients, it can contain contaminants including heavy metals, pathogens, and microplastics that may enter the food chain through treated crops. The authors review global regulations and call for stricter quality controls to prevent microplastic and other contaminant transfer to agricultural soils.
Combining industrial ecology tools to assess potential greenhouse gas reductions of a circular economy: Method development and application to Switzerland
Researchers developed a framework combining multiple environmental analysis methods to assess how circular economy strategies — like plastic recycling, food waste reduction, and carbon capture — could cut Switzerland's greenhouse gas emissions by up to 14% by 2050.
A review on mechanistic understanding of microplastic pollution on the performance of anaerobic digestion
This review examines how microplastic contamination affects anaerobic digestion, a process used to convert organic waste into biogas. Researchers found that microplastics can harm the microbial communities essential to this process through direct contact, leaching of toxic chemicals, and generating harmful reactive oxygen species. The findings raise concerns that microplastic pollution could reduce the efficiency of waste treatment systems and contribute to the spread of antibiotic resistance genes.
Estimation of microplastics entering agricultural soil through the use of biofertilizers
Scientists found that organic fertilizers made from food waste contain tiny plastic particles called microplastics, which end up in farm soil when the fertilizers are applied. These microscopic plastic bits can potentially enter our food chain through crops grown in that soil. This research helps us understand another way that plastic pollution might affect the food we eat, though more studies are needed to determine the actual health risks.
Plastic impurities in biowaste treatment: environmental and economic life cycle assessment of a composting plant
Researchers assessed an Italian composting facility and found that conventional plastic contaminants in food waste account for nearly half the residual waste produced and roughly 7% of annual operating costs, highlighting how plastic pollution undermines the economics and environmental benefits of composting.
Microplastics divert carbon flow in anaerobic digestion: a meta-analysis reveals product-specific effects
Researchers conducted a meta-analysis of 55 studies and found that microplastics do not simply inhibit anaerobic digestion but redirect carbon flow within it — suppressing methane production while boosting volatile fatty acid accumulation — with the direction and magnitude of effects determined by polymer type, concentration, size, and temperature.
Plastics in biogenic matrices intended for reuse in agriculture and the potential contribution to soil accumulation
Researchers measured plastic contamination across agricultural input materials including manures, digestate, compost, and sewage sludge, finding plastics in all samples ranging from 0.06 plastics/g in animal manure to 986 plastics/g in compost. Fibres were the dominant shape and polyester, polypropylene, and polyethylene were the most common polymers, highlighting the risk these reused matrices pose for soil plastic accumulation.
Occurrence of macroplastics and microplastics in biogenic waste digestate: Effects of depackaging at source and dewatering process
Researchers investigated plastic debris in digestate from anaerobic digestion of biogenic waste, finding that both preprocessing and dewatering steps significantly influence the quantity of macroplastics and microplastics in the resulting material used as a soil conditioner.
Organics Recycling Tradeoffs: Biogas Potential and Microplastic Content of Mechanically Depackaged Food Waste
Researchers examined the tradeoffs between biogas energy recovery potential and microplastic contamination in mechanically depackaged food waste intended for anaerobic digestion, finding that imperfect separation of packaging materials introduces microplastics into the resulting digestate.
Waste-Derived Fertilizers: Conversion Technologies, Circular Bioeconomy Perspectives and Agronomic Value
A review assessed conversion technologies that transform waste materials into fertilizers, examining how the resulting products may introduce microplastics and other contaminants into agricultural soils. The study raises concerns about the circularity of nutrient recovery if it inadvertently spreads plastic pollution.
Systematic study of microplastics on methane production in anaerobic digestion: Performance and microbial response
Microplastics are increasingly found in wastewater treatment systems, and this study systematically examined how different types, concentrations, and sizes of microplastics affect the anaerobic digestion process used to break down sewage sludge and generate biogas. Polyethylene microplastics were found to inhibit methane production, with finer particles and higher concentrations causing greater disruption to the microbial communities driving digestion. The findings matter because microplastics in sewage sludge can impair the treatment process and also end up spread on agricultural land when sludge is used as fertilizer.
Anaerobic Digestate as a Soil Amendment: Impacts on Crop Production, Soil Ecology, and Environmental Quality. A Review
This review examines the environmental impacts of applying anaerobic digestate to agricultural soils, including the introduction of microplastic contaminants from digested feedstocks, assessing how MP-laden digestate affects soil ecology, crop production, and long-term soil health.
Editorial: Anaerobic digestion of waste organics: toxicity and management
This editorial introduces a special journal issue on anaerobic digestion — a biological process that breaks down organic waste to produce biogas — discussing how toxic substances including microplastics can disrupt this process. The papers explore strategies to manage toxicity and improve waste treatment efficiency.
Microplastics in anaerobic digestion: occurrence, impact, and mitigation strategies
This review examines the presence and impact of microplastics within anaerobic digestion systems used to process sewage sludge and organic waste. Researchers found that microplastics enter these systems through diverse waste inputs and may affect biogas production, microbial community composition, and overall process performance. The study highlights the need for further research into how microplastics interact with anaerobic digestion and what mitigation strategies could minimize their interference.
Anaerobic Digestate as a Soil Amendment: Impacts on Crop Production, Soil Ecology, and Environmental Quality. A Review
This review examines the agronomic and environmental variability of anaerobic digestate as a biofertilizer, noting that digestate inputs introduce microplastic contamination into agricultural soils and that careful characterization of digestate quality is needed before large-scale application.
Microplastics, antibiotics, and heavy metals in anaerobic digestion systems : a critical review of sources, impacts, and mitigation strategies
This critical review examined how microplastics, antibiotics, and heavy metals—as co-occurring contaminants—affect the performance of anaerobic digestion systems, finding that all three impair microbial processes, reduce biogas yields, and accumulate in digestates that are then applied to agricultural soils.
Sustainable Management of Organic Waste and Recycling for Bioplastics: A LCA Approach for the Italian Case Study
Researchers used life cycle assessment to evaluate the environmental trade-offs of collecting organic waste for biodegradable plastic production in Italy, finding that the system could reduce fossil resource use but that impacts depended heavily on collection efficiency and the end-of-life pathway chosen.
The occurrence and fate of microplastics in a mesophilic anaerobic digester receiving sewage sludge, grease, and fatty slurries
Researchers analyzed microplastic loads entering and leaving a mesophilic anaerobic digester at a wastewater treatment plant serving nearly 800,000 people. They found that the digester received approximately 7,326 kg of microplastics per year, with digested sludge containing about 30% less, though this reduction was within the variability of the measurements. The study provides important data on the fate of microplastics during sewage sludge treatment processes.
Do contaminants compromise the use of recycled nutrients in organic agriculture? A review and synthesis of current knowledge on contaminant concentrations, fate in the environment and risk assessment
This review examines whether recycled nutrients from waste streams, such as sewage sludge and compost, introduce harmful contaminants including microplastics into organic farmland. While levels of heavy metals and many pollutants have decreased in European waste streams, microplastic contamination in agricultural soil remains widespread and poorly understood. The review highlights that spreading waste-derived fertilizers on farmland is a significant pathway for microplastics to enter the food production system.
Harnessing Biogas in India: A Sustainable Pathway for Sustainable Energy Development
This review examines the role of the biogas sector in India in addressing sanitation challenges and providing sustainable energy, analyzing the potential of biogas to reduce plastic and organic waste while generating clean fuel for rural communities.