Analysis of micro- and macroplastics in digestates
Abstract
Digestates originated from the anaerobic treatment of biowastes can be added to biowaste for composting, which can transfer valuable minerals to the final compost. However, impurities from the input material, such as carrier bags, can be fragmented into microplastic particles by mechanical and thermal stress during fermentation and will also be transferred to the composts, resulting in a contaminiation. In addition to this source, the input material may also already have a microplastic contamination, which cannot be detected and sorted out by state-of-the-art processes due to its size (< 5 mm). The knowledge of the input source (air, misthrow or primary "microplastics") allows to take technical measures to prevent contamination or further enrichment. Regardless of the source, conventional plastic particles weather very slowly and can accumulate further in the environment. Biodegradable plastics represent an emerging trend. According to the current state of knowledge, it has not yet been determined how high the occurrence of these materials is, to what extent they are anaerobically degraded and how high their contribution to the possible micro-plastic contamination in the fermentation residue is. The project aims to investigate the fermentation residue of the Vienna biogas plant for macro- and micro-plastics in the seasonal course and to collect quantitative data on plastic types and micro-plastic particle sizes. Microplastics of biodegradable plastics will also be investigated separately. From these data, as well as, from physical/chemical analyses carried out in parallel, the data generated within this project will be used to estimate whether the fermentation residue is suitable for composting.
keywords composting digestate Mikroplastik Plastic Contamination
Publikationen
Project staff
Christian Zafiu
Ass.Prof. Mag. Dr.rer.nat. Christian Zafiu
christian.zafiu@boku.ac.at
Tel: +43 1 47654-81327
Project Leader
20.07.2020 - 30.06.2024