Sustainable Management of Food Graphics

Flow of Feedstocks through the Anaerobic Digestion System to Produce Biogas and Digestate

This graphic illustrates the flow of feedstocks through the anaerobic digestion system to produce biogas and digestate. Examples of feedstocks that go into an anaerobic digester:

• Manure (e.g., dairy, swine, beef, poultry).
• Wastewater Biosolids (e.g., municipal sewage sludge).
• Food Waste (e.g., household, restaurant, cafeteria, grocery, food production).
• Other Organics (e.g., energy crops, fats, oils, grease, crop residue, winery/brewery waste).

Feedstocks can be digested by anaerobic digestion singularly or in combination (co-digestion).

Anaerobic digestion produces two valuable outputs: biogas and digestate.

The energy in biogas can be used to provide heat and vehicle fuel as well as generate electricity, renewable natural gas, and bioproduct feedstock (e.g., bioplastics).

Digestate can be used for animal bedding, organic fertilizer, other products (e.g., building materials), crop irrigation, and horticulture products (e.g., soil amendment, peat moss replacement, plant pots).