Marianna Makadi, Attila Tomocsik and Viktoria Orosz

Research Institute of Nyiregyhaza, RISF, CAAES, University of Debrecen,

Hungary

1. Introduction

Digestate is the by-product of methane and heat production in a biogas plant, coming from organic wastes. Depending on the biogas technology, the digestate could be a solid or a liquid material.

Digestate contains a high proportion of mineral nitrogen (N) especially in the form of ammonium which is available for plants. Moreover, it contains other macro — and microelements necessary for plant growth. Therefore the digestate can be a useful source of plant nutrients, it seems to be an effective fertilizer for crop plants. On the other hand, the organic fractions of digestate can contribute to soil organic matter (SOM) turnover, influencing the biological, chemical and physical soil characteristics as a soil amendment.

Besides these favourable effects of digestate, there are new researches to use it as solid fuel or in the process of methane production.