RT Journal Article
T1 Benchmarking composting, anaerobic digestion and dark fermentation for apple vinasse management as a strategy for sustainable energy production
A1 Estévez Rivadulla, Sofía
A1 Rebolledo Leiva, Ricardo
A1 Hernández, Diógenes
A1 González García, Sara
A1 Feijoo Costa, Gumersindo
A1 Moreira Vilar, María Teresa
K1 Life cycle assessment (LCA)
K1 Apple stillage
K1 Circular economy
K1 Resource recovery
K1 Bioenergy
AB Looking for renewable energy sources is one of the main targets in the transition to low-carbon economies. Bioenergy appears as an alternative with great potential, but firstly, it requires addressing all aspects that can limit its environmental viability. Stillage has been identified as an environmental concern of the bioethanol production. Thus, eco-friendly strategies for valorizing this resource should be pursued. In this work, three strategies such as composting (non-energy valorization), one-stage anaerobic digestion (with the aim of biogas production), and dark fermentation followed by anaerobic digestion (scheme under development to produce biohydrogen and biogas) were evaluated under a life-cycle perspective; and through process modeling based on literature data. The aim is to identify the advantages and disadvantages of dark fermentation for the management of apple stillage. To do this, a cradle-to-gate and attributional framework were followed, considering impact and damage perspectives. Results showed a very significant environmental load (around 99%) of composting compared to the selected energy recovery schemes, considering the added value of compost and the associated emissions versus those of biofuels. Otherwise, small differences were found between single-stage anaerobic digestion and dark fermentation (up to 16%), mainly, due to changes in chemical consumption and organic matter degradation efficiency
PB Elsevier
YR 2023
FD 2023
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10347/30628
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10347/30628
LA eng
NO Energy Volume 274 (2023) 127319
NO The authors would like to express their gratitude the by HP-NANOBIO project (PID2019-111163RB-I00), granted by Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation. R.R.L. and S.G.G. would like to thanks to the project Transition to sustainable agri-food sector bundling life cycle assessment and ecosystem services approaches (ALISE)  funded by the Spanish National Research Agency (TED2021-130309B-I00). S.E, R.R.L, S.G.G., M.T.M and GF belong to CRETUS and the Galician Competitive Research Group (GRC ED431C-2021/37). S. Estévez also thanks to the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities for financial support (Grant reference PRE2020-092074). D. Hernández acknowledges funding from FONDECYT, Chile (project Nº 11200398)
DS Minerva
RD 24 abr 2026