What is digestate?

What is digestate?

Digestate is fermented biomass and is a by-product of biogas production. Digestate contains water, living and dead organisms, minerals and the unconverted organic matter. Often animal manure is used in the fermentation, which comes from cattle, pigs or chickens. More organic material is often added, such as organic residual flows from the food industry. Due to the fermentation, the organic material in the manure is partly broken down into gas.

Digestate can often be applied as fertilizer on agricultural land. However, in many areas there is a surplus of fertilizers, so that digestate is often processed into a higher-quality fertilizer or other product or into an export-worthy fertilizer. Examples are the hygienization of digestate, thickening of digestate or drying digestate.