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Novel strategy for effective utilization of anaerobic digestate as a nutrient medium for crop production in a recirculating deep water culture hydroponics system

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Abstract

Anaerobic digestion is considered a potential technique for substantial waste management and valorization. The residual digestate from anaerobic digestion is a promising fertilizer rich in organic content; however, the high concentrations of phytotoxic compounds are an obstacle in the application as nutrients in advanced farming methods. This study aimed at cultivating spinach (Spinacia oleracea) in a recirculating deep water hydroponic system using an anaerobic digestate (AD) as a sole nutrient medium (bioponics). Three different systems were constructed to understand the influence of pH, precolonized biofilter on nutrient availability, nitrification efficiency, plant yield, and nutrient composition. Phytotoxicity study of 5 different leafy greens against varying concentrations of AD revealed that 30% v/v AD showed the highest germination index (GI) and biostimulation effect. Spinach exhibited highest GI of 118%. Influence of pH study revealed the significance of automated pH control and the nitrification efficiency experiments demonstrated the need for a precolonized nitrifying biofilter to efficiently utilize and recover maximum nutrients from AD. The novel approach of including a biofilter component in the system increased the ammonia conversion efficiency by 48% and doubled the overall crop yield. Comparatively, the nutrient composition of the produce from the proposed system was found to be energy-dense and rich in micronutrients.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Funding

This work was supported by Council for Scientific and Industrial Research – CSIR (No: 09/468/0509/2018/EMR – I).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Food Technology, Department of Biotechnology, Anna University, Chennai, 600 025, India

    Srisowmeya Guruchandran, Chakravarthy Muninathan & Nandhini Devi Ganesan

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  1. Srisowmeya Guruchandran
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  2. Chakravarthy Muninathan
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  3. Nandhini Devi Ganesan
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Contributions

Srisowmeya Guruchandran: Conceptualization, experimentation, data curation, and writing Chakravarthy Muninathan: Methodology, writing and statistical analysis. Nandhini Devi Ganesan: Validation of experimental designs, supervision, and administration.

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Correspondence to Nandhini Devi Ganesan.

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Guruchandran, S., Muninathan, C. & Ganesan, N.D. Novel strategy for effective utilization of anaerobic digestate as a nutrient medium for crop production in a recirculating deep water culture hydroponics system. Biomass Conv. Bioref. 14, 9491–9503 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13399-022-03109-5

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