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Environmental consequences of the treatment of corn contaminated by aflatoxin B1 with co-digestion and co-composting in a life cycle perspective

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Abstract

Global environmental performances of anaerobic co-digestion and co-composting of aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) contaminated corn were investigated by a life cycle assessment approach. Anaerobic co-digestion of pig slurry and corn with 25 μgkg-1 ww AFB1 concentration resulted able to generate 627 NLkgVS-1 of biogas with a reduction of the AFB1 concentration in the digestate of 44%. At AFB1 concentration of 100 μg kg-1 ww, the process resulted strongly inhibited with a biogas generation of 122 NLkgVS-1 and AFB1 concentration reduction in the digestate of 25%. Co-composting of 100 μg kg-1 dw AFB1 contaminated corn with other substrates as organic fraction of municipal waste, pig slurry, and other lignin-cellulosic residues showed a removal efficiency of AFB1 ranging from about 80 up to 95% depending on the different mixtures adopted. Environmental consequences associated to the removal of 1 mg of AFB1 in different scenarios investigated, including also the use on land of the digestate and of the compost, indicated that global warming was affected equally by co-digestion and co-composting, about 95 kgCO2eq. Co-digestion showed also the possibility of achieving avoided emissions of about − 0.007 kgNMVOCeq, − 2.5E-3 kgPeq, and − 30CTUe. Benefits concerning resource depletion resulted higher for co-composting due to the high amount of mineral fertilizer replaced. Contribution of AFB1 in the determination of human health (DALY) resulted lower than about 4% for co-digestion and practically negligible for co-composting.

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Data availability

The dataset used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. LAR5 - Dipartimento di Ingegneria, University of Perugia, Via G. Duranti 93, 06125, Perugia, Italy

    Francesco Di Maria & Federico Sisani

  2. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Perugia, Via G. Duranti 93, 06125, Perugia, Italy

    Giovanni Gigliotti, Daniela Pezzolla, Chiara Tacconi & Mirko Cucina

  3. Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Perugia, Borgo XX Giugno 74, 06121, Perugia, Italy

    Claudia Zadra

Authors
  1. Francesco Di Maria
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  2. Federico Sisani
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  3. Giovanni Gigliotti
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  4. Daniela Pezzolla
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  5. Chiara Tacconi
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  6. Mirko Cucina
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  7. Claudia Zadra
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Contributions

F.D.M. initiated and designed the study and drafted the manuscripts. F.S. performed the numerical simulations. G.G. designed the experimental runs. D.P. elaborated the data from experimental runs. C.T. executed the experimental runs. M.C. performed the chemical analysis on the organic substrates. C.Z. performed the chemical analysis on gaseous substrates.

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Correspondence to Francesco Di Maria.

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Di Maria, F., Sisani, F., Gigliotti, G. et al. Environmental consequences of the treatment of corn contaminated by aflatoxin B1 with co-digestion and co-composting in a life cycle perspective. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 9267–9275 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-11372-0

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