The extent of methane (CH) emissions after fertilisation of grassland with digestate.

Methane (CH) emissions following surface application of liquid digestate were measured on agricultural grassland. The total extent of emissions was estimated by curve fitting and integration. The temporal pattern of the CH efflux was well described by fitting double-phase decay curves ( $$ J(T) = B \times {\text{EXP}}( - iT) + C \times {\text{EXP}}( - jT) $$). Total emissions were found to be small in all cases (7.3-11.5 mg CH L). From a greenhouse gas perspective, this level of CH emissions represents only a few per cent of the global warming potential of the nitrous oxide emissions which may occur following application of the digestate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]