Hi Matt, In response to your request for information on drying digestate, please find the following details which work for me. The digestate contains several substances which are of great benefit to crops, the soil and much more. Once you are familiar with the fallacy of NPK, you will come to realize the value of recycling plant nutrient via digestion. The liquid fraction is made up of fulvic acid and colloidal minerals which are immediately available to plants as they are originally derived from plants. Diluted similarly to seaweed concentrate, this colloidal solution is applied directly to the foliar aspects of the plant where it is directly absorbed via the stomata. The solid fraction is rich in carbon compounds and non-colloidal minerals ideally suited to soils. When converted to pellet form and suitably dried, this material is able to be applied using standard broadcasting techniques. This material, while still in a wet form is able to have liquid or dry ingredients added before pelleting to correct measured soil deficiencies. Below this solid fraction copious amounts of fiber is found. This fiber is not degraded by the bacteria of the bio-reactor, nor is it consumed by vermiculture. Fiber is not digested by any organism other than fungus. This fiber is able to be mixed with the carbon compounds previously mentioned and bound up as a pellet, or separated out and directed to paper making, or the manufacture of carbon fiber. Before all this is done, the digestate needs to be segregated into these separate substances. I use vibro-filtration through several different sized screens, then centrifuge to isolate colloidal materials from carbon compounds. The use of potassium hydroxide also enables the dissociation of fulvic acid from more dense humic substances. Peter Allison.
_______________________________________________ Digestion mailing list
to Send a Message to the list, use the email address [email protected] to UNSUBSCRIBE or Change your List Settings use the web page http://lists.bioenergylists.org/mailman/listinfo/digestion_lists.bioenergylists.org for more information about digestion, see Beginner's Guide to Biogas http://www.adelaide.edu.au/biogas/ and the Biogas Wiki http://biogas.wikispaces.com/
