Di seguito un estratto dell’articolo pubblicato da Agronotizie:

“Dal digestato substrati per la coltivazione fuori suolo, ora è possibile

L’economia circolare è al centro del progetto HB Ponics che è stato presentato durante l’ultima edizione di NovelFarm dalla Libera Università di Bolzano e dalla startup HBI.

Economia circolare al centro: presto, un’azienda agricola con impianto di biogas, potrà utilizzare il residuo derivante dal processo di digestione anaerobica, il digestato, per alimentare una serra con coltivazioni fuorisuolo.

Durante l’ultima edizione di NovelFarm a Pordenone, infatti, la Libera Università di Bolzano e la startup HBI hanno presentato un prototipo di impianto di trattamento del digestato che permetterebbe di fornire alla serra annessa all’impianto di biogas, un substrato di crescita solido (Hydrochar) e uno liquido, una soluzione fertirrigante. Il progetto si chiama Hb Ponics.”

Il resto dell’articolo, insieme all’intervista video, è consultabile al seguente indirizzo:

https://agronotizie.imagelinenetwork.com/bio-energie-rinnovabili/2020/03/25/dal-digestato-substrati-per-la-coltivazione-fuori-suolo-ora-e-possibile/66306

Durante l’evento sono stati infatti presentati gli ultimi risultati dei testi di laboratorio effettuati per comprendere gli effetti dell’applicazione del digestato trattato attraverso la tecnologia HBI in applicazioni fuori suolo.

Di seguito i poster presentati durante la fiera.

Follow the latest news on the HB Ponics project on the officiale Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/HBPonics

Un’altro contributo fondamentale al progetto HBPonics grazie al progetto di tesi di Alessandro Cazzanelli “Hydrothermal Carbonization (HTC) of digestate: a study of a possible application of hydrochar for hydroponic culture”. Grazie allo studio di Alessandro, la valorizzazione sostenibile dei residui biodegradabili si avvicina ulteriormente al panorama industriale, rappresentando una soluzione in grado di abilitare l’Economia Circolare.

Segui le news del progetto HB Ponics sulla pagina Facebook ufficiale:

https://www.facebook.com/HBPonics[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” width=”1/2″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][image_with_animation image_url=”7947″ alignment=”” animation=”Fade In” border_radius=”none” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”][image_with_animation image_url=”7948″ alignment=”” animation=”Fade In” border_radius=”none” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”][/vc_column][/vc_row]

The research, conducted in the frame of the HB Ponics project, was selected for this special award thanks to its ability to join new innovative and sustainable technologies for revolutionizing digestate treatment and valorization. The whole project is in fact centered around the development of innovative systems that are able to work in harmony in order to create a solution that fully embraces the principles of Circular Economy while producing tangible benefits also in industrial applications.

More info on the project at: https://www.hbigroup.it/hb-ponics/[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” width=”1/2″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][image_with_animation image_url=”7929″ alignment=”center” animation=”Fade In” border_radius=”none” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”][/vc_column][/vc_row]

“The application of digestate, which is produced in biogas plants, on agricultural fields is becoming an important challenge and is therefore regulated by European Union directives. Large amounts of digestate may accumulate, especially in areas with high density of biogas plants, and thus are considered as wastes. In order to cope with this issue, the accumulated digestate could be used as feedstock in a Hydrothermal Carbonization (HTC) process from which solid, liquid and gaseous products are formed and could be used for different applications.

In this thesis, the anaerobic digestate, deriving from the biogas Wipptal plant, was treated through a HTC process and the chemical and physical properties of the by-products (liquid – AHLs and solid – hydrochars) were analysed in order to verify their possible use as NS or substrates in Soilless Cultivation Systems (SCS).

The chemical composition of the AHLs was comparable to that of a conventional NS, except for some parameters. Thus, with some adjustments in pH, EC and nutrients, depending on the plant needs, it could be possible to use the AHLs for plant growth. The result of the germination tests led to the conclusion that it can be favourable to mix hydrochar with other growing media (GM) to reduce the phytotoxicity. Treatments of acidification and salt washing of hydrochars might represent a possible solution to reduce pH and EC and thus to use the hydrochars as GM.

Finally, we observed that the temperature of the HTC process had a greater influence on the composition of the by-products than the process time. In conclusion, the digestate could have a high potential to be used as feedstock in HTC processes, if the main goal is to use the hydrochar as substrate and the AHLs as nutrient solution in SCS.”

Author: Alex Bergamo

Thesis Supervisor: Prof. Tanja Mimmo

Other Supervisors: Prof. Stefano Cesco, dr. Silvia Celletti[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” width=”1/3″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][vc_column_text]

Alex Bergamo during the presentation of the Master’s thesis

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The lab tests highlighted that since the growing media of the future must be available, affordable, and sustainable and we need a waste management strategy, aimed at reducing, reusing, and recycling, the coupling of AD with HTC could represent a sustainable practice in the field of biomass and waste conversion.

[pdf-embedder url=”https://www.hbigroup.it/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Poster-Susgro2019_ISHS_Silvia-Celletti.pdf” title=”Poster Susgro2019_ISHS_Silvia Celletti”]

In the last 10 years, the biogas production market showed a constant increasing trend reaching almost 17.500 installed plants in EU [1] (Figure 1).

Figure 1 – Development of EU biogas plants between 2009 and 2017

Germany leads the European market with the 63% of the installed capacity (10.971 plants), whereas Italy settle itself at around 1.655 biogas plants active at a national level. [1]

Feedstocks used for generating biogas in anaerobic digestion plants are mainly coming from agricultural sector, with the remaining substrates being composed by sewage sludge, OFMSW and other landfilled waste (Figure 2). [1]

Figure 2 – Relative use of different AD feedstock types according to number of biogas plants

Current research activities are focused on understanding how to effectively exploit the energy and material content in the digestate, including the EFRE-FESR HB Ponics project. In particular, one of the objectives is to find a solution capable of treating this feedstock by also ensuring a higher economic and environmental sustainability level with respect to current digestate treatment processes which mainly include:

• Composting
• Incineration
• Landfilling
• Direct agricultural use

This kind of approaches are usually linked to a high need of conditioning processes that are in most of the cases source of an increment in operating costs. In addition, the environmental impact of landfilling and incineration is unsustainable, especially considering the rate of growth in the generation of such kind of biodegradable products. In the last few years, several papers addressed the extraction of valuable products from digestate in order to elevate the existing systems towards Circular Economy. However, only few biogas production plants implemented this kind of measures. The aim of the HB Ponics project is therefore the creation of the link between current technologies and a more sustainable use of natural resources.

References

[1] EBA, “EBA Statistical Report 2018: Annual Statistical Report of the European Biogas Association. European Overview Chapter”, 2018[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” width=”5/12″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][image_with_animation image_url=”7476″ alignment=”right” animation=”Fade In” border_radius=”none” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”][/vc_column][/vc_row]