Biodigestate

Project manager: Gunnar Svensson, Dept of Crop Science, SLU.

Project group: Ulla Gertsson and Anita Gunnarsson, Hortikultur, SLU

The aim of the project is to achieve nutrient supply within a five-year crop rotation through including a green manure crop and returning residues from the commercial crop and the green manure in the form of biodigestate. The crop rotation includes the following crops:

• Green manure 
• Beetroot/sugarbeet 
• Spring wheat 
• Peas 
• Spring barley with undersown crop

The advantages of this system are that:

• Plant nutrients can be saved from one season to the next and can therefore be used at the desired time in the next season. 
• Nitrogen fixation in the green manure is probably increased, since the cut biomass is removed 
• The biodigestate is liquid and can therefore be used in the growing crop 
• Biogas is produced as a by-product.

The beetroot crop is in a separate treatment with different pre-crop treatments and associated quality studies. To this part of the project  Anita Gunnarsson is associated as a PhD-student.