Quality Requirements and BiogasOla Palm

Swedish certification system for digestate (I)

Swedish Waste Management Association owner of

the system

Introduced year 1999

Product certification system

Positive list for substrate possible to use (the same

principle as for the coming fertilising regulation)

Available at www.avfallsverige.se

Swedish certification system for digestate (II)

One year qualification period before receiving a

certificate

A steering committee responsible for development

of the system – experts, stake holders, authorities

SP Technical Research Institute of Sweden certify

and controls the plants and the digestate

Swedish Waste Management Ass. vision for digestate and compost

VisionDigestate and compost is the number-one fertilizer and soil improver on the market

Swedish Waste Management Association , Report U 2011-16 (in Swedish)

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2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

Number of certified plants

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200000

400000

600000

800000

1000000

1200000

1400000

2012 2013 2014 2015

Amount of produced digestate (ton/year)

Energy crops

Other

Slaughterhouse wastes

Manure

Source separated household waste

Food industry waste

Amount of substrate (tone)

Plant nutrients in the digestate

Recirculation of plant nutrients from digestate 2015

Phosphorus (tot-P): 600 tone (total use of mineral fertilizer about 11 000 tone)

Ammonium nitrogen (NH4-N): 3 200 tone

Nitrogen (tot-N): 5 200 tone (total use of mineral fertilizer about 155 000 tone)

Potassium (tot-K): 2 300 tone (total use of mineral fertilizer about 25 000 tone

About 32 000 ha of arable land was fertilized with digestate

Food waste from households, restaurants and catering

27 % of all food waste was treated in biogas plants (recovery of energy

and plant nutrients) – national goal by year 2018: 40 %

Total amount of food waste is about 96 kg/person and year

= 935 000 tone!

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200

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

Year 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

Biogasproduction, GWh/year

Certifired plants

All biogas plants

Results of 17 years of work

Number of Certified biogas plants: 19

The trust to the system is large among food industry and farmers

Accepted as a fertilizer when producing according to the rules of:

Swedish Seal of Quality (premium food certification system)

KRAV – Swedish certification system for organic producers accept that source

separated organic household waste is used as a substrate

Key aspects

Source separated clean organic wastes with food- or feed origin

Positive list for allowed substrates

Steering committee with a broad representation (food industry, farmers

union, Swedish Waste Management Association, independent experts

and researchers) which can react if necessary

Independent inspection body and one year of qualification for a plant

Limit values

Conclusions

The certification system has been important for a high acceptance of

digestate as fertilizer

Digestate is an excellent fertilizer

Digestate will reduce the carbon dioxide footprint in agriculture

Re-uses of plant nutrients with high acceptance