Alternativas de co-tratamiento biológico de residuos agroindustriales. Valorización agronómica del producto final

Resumen

Sustainable and efficient strategies for. the recycling of biodegradable waste should increase in our society. in this sense, the biological treatment of these wastes is one of the best options from an environmental viewpoint, specially the anaerobio digestion and the composting. Moreover, in many areas of the Mediterranean countries there is a growing lack of organic matter. Therefore, a research was conducted to assess the feasibility of the dry anaerobio digestion and composting for the treatment of agroindustrial wastes, in order to perform an energy recovery from them and to recycle the organic matter that it contains into a quality organic soil amendment. This product can be used both in crops and in degraded soils. This study has been done by analysing the two processes separately but also the combination of both of them (anaerobic digestion followed by a post-composting). The research has focused on the stability of the high-solids anaerobic process and the effect of a post-aerobic treatment in the quality of the end-product. It was also analyzed the influence of co-treating two types of waste with different properties: vegetable wastes with meat and bone meal. The results have shown that the best choice from a quality end-product viewpoint is the combination of the two co-treatment processes under study. in addition to this, that option has shown a high energy recovery of waste in terms of biogas generation. Moreover, the lower cost associated to this technology compared to other investment alternatives, makes it particularly suitable for implementation in developing countries.