Anaerobic digestion and digestate use: accounting of greenhouse gases and global warming contribution
Open accessAbstract
Anaerobic digestion (AD) of source-separated municipal solid waste (MSW) and use of the digestate is presented from a global warming (GW) point of view by providing ranges of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that are useful for calculation of global warming factors (GWFs), i.e. the contribution to GW measured in CO(2)-equivalents per tonne of wet waste. The GHG accounting was done by distinguishing between direct contributions at the AD facility and indirect upstream or downstream contributions. GHG accounting for a generic AD facility with either biogas utilization at the facility or upgrading of the gas for vehicle fuel resulted in a GWF from -375 (a saving) to 111 (a load) kg CO(2)-eq. tonne(-1) wet waste. In both cases the digestate was used for fertilizer substitution. This large range was a result of the variation found for a number of key parameters: energy substitution by biogas, N(2)O-emission from digestate in soil, fugitive emission of CH( 4), unburned CH(4), carbon bound in soil and fertilizer substitution. GWF for a specific type of AD facility was in the range -95 to -4 kg CO(2)-eq. tonne(-1) wet waste. The ranges of uncertainty, especially of fugitive losses of CH(4) and carbon sequestration highly influenced the result. In comparison with the few published GWFs for AD, the range of our data was much larger demonstrating the need to use a consistent and robust approach to GHG accounting and simultaneously accept that some key parameters are highly uncertain.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The text we found for this paper looks like another document, so the self-check wasn’t run.
Cites
Climate change 2007: the physical science basis
Solomon, S., Qin, D., Manning, M., Marquis, M. C., Averyt, K. B., Tignor, M., Miller, H. L., & Chen, Z. (2007) · Cited by 23,398 · see citing works
Assessment of energy performance in the life-cycle of biogas production
Berglund, M., & Börjesson, P. (2006) · Biomass and Bioenergy · doi:10.1016/j.biombioe.2005.11.011 · Cited by 557 · see citing works
Composting and compost utilization: accounting of greenhouse gases and global warming contributions
Boldrin, A., Andersen, J., Møller, J., Christensen, T. H., & Favoino, E. (2009) · Waste Management Research · doi:10.1177/0734242x09345275 · Cited by 428 · see citing works
Self-citationLandfilling of waste: accounting of greenhouse gases and global warming contributions
Manfredi, S., Tonini, D., Christensen, T. H., & Scharff, H. (2009) · Waste Management & Research The Journal for a Sustainable Circular Economy · doi:10.1177/0734242x09348529 · Cited by 275 · see citing works
Self-citationChristensen, T. H., Gentil, E., Boldrin, A., et al. (2009) · Waste Management & Research The Journal for a Sustainable Circular Economy · doi:10.1177/0734242x08096304 · Cited by 249 · see citing works
Self-citationMethane yield in source-sorted organic fraction of municipal solid waste
Davidsson, Å., Gruvberger, C., Christensen, T. H., et al. (2006) · Waste Management · doi:10.1016/j.wasman.2006.02.013 · Cited by 245 · see citing works
Self-citationAstrup, T. F., Møller, J., & Fruergaard, T. (2009) · Waste Management & Research The Journal for a Sustainable Circular Economy · doi:10.1177/0734242x09343774 · Cited by 244 · see citing works
Self-citationThe potential role of compost in reducing greenhouse gases
Favoino, E., & Hogg, D. (2008) · Waste Management & Research The Journal for a Sustainable Circular Economy · doi:10.1177/0734242x08088584 · Cited by 196 · see citing works
Fruergaard, T., Astrup, T., & Ekvall, T. (2009) · Waste Management Research · doi:10.1177/0734242x09345276 · Cited by 172 · see citing works
Greenhouse gas accounting and waste management
Gentil, E., Christensen, T. H., & Aoustin, E. (2009) · Waste Management & Research The Journal for a Sustainable Circular Economy · doi:10.1177/0734242x09346702 · Cited by 168 · see citing works
Self-citationHansen, T. L., Bhander, G. S., Christensen, T. H., et al. (2006) · Waste Management & Research The Journal for a Sustainable Circular Economy · doi:10.1177/0734242x06063053 · Cited by 129 · see citing works
Self-citationApplication of processed organic municipal solid waste on agricultural land – a scenario analysis
Bruun, S., Hansen, T. L., Christensen, T. H., Magid, J., & Jensen, L. S. (2006) · Environmental Modeling & Assessment · doi:10.1007/s10666-005-9028-0 · Cited by 116 · see citing works
Self-citationEisted, R., Larsen, A. W., & Christensen, T. H. (2009) · Waste Management & Research The Journal for a Sustainable Circular Economy · doi:10.1177/0734242x09347796 · Cited by 116 · see citing works
Self-citationComparison of dry and wet digestion for solid waste
Luning, L., van Zundert, E. H. M., & Brinkmann, A. J. F. (2003) · Water Science & Technology · doi:10.2166/wst.2003.0210 · Cited by 96 · see citing works
EU strategies and policies on soil and waste management to offset greenhouse gas emissions
Marmo, L. (2007) · Waste Management · doi:10.1016/j.wasman.2007.09.030 · Cited by 62 · see citing works
Evaluation of different biological waste treatment strategies.
Reeh, U., & Møller, J. E. (2002) · Organic Eprints (International Centre for Research in Organic Food Systems, and Research Institute of Organic Agriculture) · Cited by 8 · see citing works
Self-citation
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Walling, E., & Vaneeckhaute, C. (2020) · Journal of Environmental Management · doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2020.111211 · Cited by 408 · see citing works
Hydrothermal carbonization of anaerobically digested maize silage
Mumme, J., Eckervogt, L., Pielert, J., Diakité, M., Rupp, F., & Kern, J. (2011) · Bioresource Technology · doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2011.06.099 · Cited by 399 · see citing works
Environmental sustainability of bioethanol production from wheat straw in the UK
Wang, L., Littlewood, J., & Murphy, R. J. (2013) · Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.rser.2013.08.031 · Cited by 144 · see citing works
Duan, Y., Wang, Z., Ganeshan, P., Sar, T., Xu, S., Rajendran, K., Sindhu, R., Binod, P., Pandey, A., Zhang, Z., et al. (2025) · Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.rser.2024.114985 · Cited by 66 · see citing works
Life-cycle assessment of solid waste management in Dhulikhel Municipality, Nepal
Bajracharya, S., Adhikari, A., Shrestha, P. P., & Ghimire, A. (2022) · Journal of Environmental Engineering and Science · doi:10.1680/jenes.21.00045 · Cited by 12 · see citing works
- Authors
- Møller, J., Boldrin, A., & Christensen, T. H.
- Affiliations
- Technical University of Denmark (DK)
- Venue
- Waste Management & Research: The Journal for a Sustainable Circular Economy
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2009-09-11
- Volume
- 27
- Issue
- 8
- Pages
- 813-824
- ISSN
- 0734-242X (ISSN-L)
- 1096-3669
- OpenAlex
- W2101657334
- Cited by
- 270
- References
- 16
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 15 · 2023: 17 · 2022: 15 · 2021: 13 · 2020: 25 · 2019: 23 · 2018: 18 · 2017: 19 · 2016: 22 · 2015: 20 · 2014: 18 · 2013: 10 · 2012: 21
- FWCI
- 33.51
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- orbit.dtu.dk
- Locations
- Waste Management & Research The Journal for a Sustainable Circular Economy (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Technical University of Denmark, DTU Orbit (Technical University of Denmark, DTU) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Building and Construction › Anaerobic Digestion and Biogas Production
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Waste Management and Disposal › Municipal Solid Waste Management
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Waste Management and Disposal › Landfill Environmental Impact Studies
- Keywords
- anaerobic digestion, digestate, greenhouse gas accounting, municipal solid waste, biogas utilization, nitrous oxide emissions, carbon sequestration, fertilizer substitution, global warming potential
- MeSH terms
- Air Pollutants, Bacteria, Anaerobic, Biodegradation, Environmental, Carbon Dioxide, Environmental Monitoring, Methane, Refuse Disposal, Bioreactors, Biofuels, Global Warming
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
