Nutrient removal and recovery from digestate: a review of the technology

Digestate is a byproduct of anaerobic digestion, which can be considered waste or a product of potential use for the chemical industry or agriculture. In either case, the digestate must usually be treated prior to being disposed of or valorized. This review describes digestate processing technologies and their specific characteristics. Nutrient recovery and removal from digestate can be achieved through mechanical, physicochemical or biological processes. Available and potential digestate treatment techniques are presented. The complexities of the technologies available, legislation, the agronomical value of the digestate and the economic value of the process mean a decision support tool is required to help managers choose the best digestate processing technology. To ensure adequate analysis, the whole biomethanization project should be integrated in the use of these decision support tools. The objectives and limits of some of the currently available tools are analyzed at the end of this review.