Local circular economy: BSF insect rearing in the Italian Agri-Food Industry.

With a growing population, both food and waste production will increase. There is an urgent need for innovative ways of valorizing waste. The black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens L.) efficiently converts agri-food by-products (BPs) into high-quality materials; its rearing process yields larvae (BSFL) rich in fat and protein for feed purposes, with "frass" acting as organic fertilizer. While the insect rearing sector is expanding, few producers use BPs. Therefore, a case study approach was adopted to evaluate the potential for establishing an Italian BSFL production plant on BPs available on the territory. After contacting more than 115 agri-food companies (maximum 100 km from the BSFL plant), they were classified based on sector, distance, size, and BPs (quantity, seasonality, management). BPs with a low value (fruit and vegetable residues) were treated as waste, associated with costs and low valorization. By merging the available BPs on the territory and following the literature on BSFL nutritional needs' two diets (Scenario BSFL) were created, assessing their suitability comparing them to the current full-scale plant diet (Scenario 0). The exploitation of BPs for BSFL rearing reduced local waste production by 52 % compared to conventional composting (Scenario 0). In addition, integrating BPs into the larval feed formulation increased BSFL production value (+47 times). These results highlight the potential of locally-based insect rearing to valorize BPs and create a network of sustainable actors within the agri-food industry. Further investigations are needed to improve the connection between agri-food and insect industrial activities, expanding this framework to other regions.

Evaluating the potential of hydrochar as a soil amendment.

In this study, hydrochar (HC), a carbon-rich product originated from hydrothermal conversion treatment (HTC), was obtained from wastes of the wine and dairy industries. The effect of mixing secondary char and compost was tested, before and after the aerobic mixing of compost (COM) and HC at increasing doses (from 15 to 75 Mg ha-1 DM), in an effort to lower the HC phytotoxicity due to potential phytotoxic compounds of secondary char. The results indicated that, after the aerobic stabilization, the mix HC/COM was able to double the plant growth in comparison to COM alone. The presence of easily degradable organic compounds probably led to poor stability of HC, increased microbial activity and, consequently, root anoxia when used at high doses. Chemical, spectroscopic and thermal investigation confirmed this hypothesis. In particular, HC shows a high content of dissolved organic matter, characterized by the presence of small molecules, which is negatively correlated with the growth index of lettuce. Furthermore, thermal characterization suggests a higher proportion of less complex and thermally stable molecular compounds in HC in comparison to COM. Therefore, co-composting of HC allows obtaining a useful amendment to support soil organic matter and fertility.

Nitrogen dynamics in soils fertilized with digestate and mineral fertilizers: A full field approach.

Highly stabilized digestate from sewage sludge and digestate-derived ammonium sulphate (RFs), were used in a comparison with synthetic mineral fertilizers (SF) to crop maize in a three-year plot trial in open fields. RFs and SF were dosed to ensure the same amount of mineral N (ammonia-N). In doing so, plots fertilized with digestate received much more N (+185 kg ha-1 of organic N) because digestate also contained organic N. The fate of nitrogen was studied by measuring mineral and organic N in soil at different depths, ammonia and N2O emissions, and N uptake in crops. Soil analyses indicated that at one-meter depth there was no significant difference in nitrate content between RF, SF and Unfertilized plots during crop season indicating that more N dosed with digestate did not lead to extra nitrate leaching. Ammonia emissions and N content in plants and grains measured were also similar for both RF and SF. Measuring denitrification activity by using gene makers resulted in a higher denitrification activity for RF than SF. Nevertheless, N2O measurements showed that SF emitted more N2O than RF (although it was not statistically different) (7.59 ± 3.2 kgN ha-1 for RF and 10.3 ± 6.8 kgN ha-1 for SF), suggesting that probably the addition of organic matter with digestate to RF, increased the denitrification efficiency so that N2 production was favoured. Soil analyses, although were not able detecting N differences between SF and Rf after three years of cropping, revealed a statistical increasing of total carbon, suggesting that dosing digestate lead to carbon (and maybe N) accumulation in soil. Data seem to suggest that N2O/N2 emission and organic N accumulation in soil can explain the fate of the extra N dosed (organic-N) in RF plots.

Environmental micro-niche filtering shapes bacterial pioneer communities during primary colonization of a Himalayas' glacier forefield.

The pedogenesis from the mineral substrate released upon glacier melting has been explained with the succession of consortia of pioneer microorganisms, whose structure and functionality are determined by the environmental conditions developing in the moraine. However, the microbiome variability that can be expected in the environmentally heterogeneous niches occurring in a moraine at a given successional stage is poorly investigated. In a 50 m2 area in the forefield of the Lobuche glacier (Himalayas, 5050 m above sea level), we studied six sites of primary colonization presenting different topographical features (orientation, elevation and slope) and harbouring greyish/dark biological soil crusts (BSCs). The spatial vicinity of the sites opposed to their topographical differences, allowed us to examine the effect of environmental conditions independently from the time of deglaciation. The bacterial microbiome diversity and their co-occurrence network, the bacterial metabolisms predicted from 16S rRNA gene high-throughput sequencing, and the microbiome intact polar lipids were investigated in the BSCs and the underlying sediment deep layers (DLs). Different bacterial microbiomes inhabited the BSCs and the DLs, and their composition varied among sites, indicating a niche-specific role of the micro-environmental conditions in the bacterial communities' assembly. In the heterogeneous sediments of glacier moraines, physico-chemical and micro-climatic variations at the site-spatial scale are crucial in shaping the microbiome microvariability and structuring the pioneer bacterial communities during pedogenesis.

Using highly stabilized digestate and digestate-derived ammonium sulphate to replace synthetic fertilizers: The effects on soil, environment, and crop production.

Recovered fertilizers (a highly stabilized digestate and ammonium sulphate) obtained from anaerobic digestion of sewage sludge, were used on plot trials with a maize crop, in a comparison with synthetic fertilizers. After three consecutive cropping seasons, the soils fertilized with the recovered fertilizers (RF), compared to those fertilized with synthetic fertilizers (SF), did not show significant differences either in their chemical characteristics or in the accumulation of inorganic and organic pollutants (POPs). The RF ensured an ammonia N availability in the soil equal to that of the soil fertilized with SF, during the whole period of the experiment. Furthermore, no risks of N leaching were detected, and the use of RF did not result in a greater emission of ammonia or greenhouse gases than the use of SF. The agronomic results obtained using RF were equivalent to those obtained with SF (fertilizer use efficiency of 85.3 ± 10 and 93.6 ± 4.4% for RF and SF respectively). The data show that utilising a very stable digestate can be a good strategy to produce a bio-based fertilizer with similar performance to that of a synthetic fertilizer, without environmental risks.

Aridity modulates belowground bacterial community dynamics in olive tree.

Aridity negatively affects the diversity and abundance of edaphic microbial communities and their multiple ecosystem services, ultimately impacting vegetation productivity and biotic interactions. Investigation about how plant-associated microbial communities respond to increasing aridity is of particular importance, especially in light of the global climate change predictions. To assess the effect of aridity on plant associated bacterial communities, we investigated the diversity and co-occurrence of bacteria associated with the bulk soil and the root system of olive trees cultivated in orchards located in higher, middle and lower arid regions of Tunisia. The results indicated that the selective process mediated by the plant root system is amplified with the increment of aridity, defining distinct bacterial communities, dominated by aridity-winner and aridity-loser bacteria negatively and positively correlated with increasing annual rainfall, respectively. Aridity regulated also the co-occurrence interactions among bacteria by determining specific modules enriched with one of the two categories (aridity-winners or aridity-losers), which included bacteria with multiple PGP functions against aridity. Our findings provide new insights into the process of bacterial assembly and interactions with the host plant in response to aridity, contributing to understand how the increasing aridity predicted by climate changes may affect the resilience of the plant holobiont.

Degradation of bioplastics in organic waste by mesophilic anaerobic digestion, composting and soil incubation.

The aim of the study was to assess the effects of high concentrations (10 % w/w, data projected for 2030) of commercial bioplastics, i.e. starch based shopping bags (SBSB) and polylactic acid (PLA) tableware, in the organic fraction of municipal solid wastes (MSW) on compost quality obtained by pilot-scale dry mesophilic anaerobic digestion and subsequent composting of the digestate. After the biological processes, 48.1 % total solids (TS) of SBSB and 15 % TS of PLA degraded, resulting in a high bioplastics content (about 18 % TS) in compost. Subsequent compost incubation in soils indicated that bioplastics degraded by pseudo-zero order kinetics (0.014 and 0.010 mg C cm-2 d-1 for SBSB and PLA, respectively), i.e. complete degradation was expected in 1.6 years (SBSB) and 7.2 years (PLA), confirming the intrinsic biodegradability of bioplastics. Nevertheless, enhancing the rate and amount of bioplastics degradation during waste management represents a goal to decrease the amount of bioplastics reaching the environment.

The role of waste management in reducing bioplastics' leakage into the environment: A review.

Bioplastics are becoming more and more widespread as substitutes for petroleum-derived plastics due to their biodegradability. Bioplastics degradation under different environments has been described and reported to depend mainly on bioplastics' compositions and the environmental conditions. Incomplete degradation during waste management processes and leakage of bioplastics into the environment are becoming major concerns that need to be further investigated. In this context, the present paper aimed to review recent literature dealing with biodegradation of bioplastics under industrial (e.g. anaerobic digestion and composting) and natural (e.g. soil and water) environments, and to link it to the potential bioplastics' leakage into the environment. Reviewed data were used to estimate the potential role of waste management processes in decreasing the potential leakage of bioplastics. Depending on bioplastics' type and processing conditions, waste management can effectively reduce bioplastics' potential leakage, decreasing the concentration of these materials that can reach the natural environments.

Thermophilic anaerobic digestion as suitable bioprocess producing organic and chemical renewable fertilizers: A full-scale approach.

This work reports a full-scale study in which organic wastes were transformed by high-solid thermophilic anaerobic digestion (HSAD), into N fertilizers and organic fertilizers, i.e. digestate. The produced fertilizers were characterized over 42 months and their properties were discussed in comparisons with literature data. HSAD coupled with N stripping technology led to ammonia sulphate production having high N concentration (74 ± 2 g kg-1 wet weight), neutral pH (6.8 ± 1.3) and low traces of other elements. Digestate showed both higher carbon (C) content (314 ± 30 g kg-1 on dry matter (DM) and biological stability than green composts, indicating good amendment properties. Digestate was also interesting for its N (77 ± 3.7 g kg-1 dry matter - DM) content, half of it in the ammonia form, and P content (28 ± 4.1 g kg-1 DM) that was 43% readily available as soluble P-orthophosphate. K content was low (6.5 ± 1.3 g kg-1 DM), indicating poor fertilizing ability of digestate for this element. All organic pollutants investigated were much lower than the limits required for agricultural use and levels of some of them were lower than the content revealed for other organic matrices such as agricultural and energy crop digestates and compost. Emerging pollutants (i.e., pharmaceuticals) were tested as markers and they were found to be below the detection limit (<0.01 mg kg-1 DM) indicating very low content. The results obtained showed that HSAD coupled with N stripping allowed transforming sewage sludge into fertilizers and soil improvers exploitable in agriculture.

The distribution of functional N-cycle related genes and ammonia and nitrate nitrogen in soil profiles fertilized with mineral and organic N fertilizer.

Nitrogen transformation in soil is a complex process and the soil microbial population can regulate the potential for N mineralization, nitrification and denitrification. Here we show that agricultural soils under standard agricultural N-management are consistently characterized by a high presence of gene copies for some of the key biological activities related to the N-cycle. This led to a strong NO3- reduction (75%) passing from the soil surface (15.38 ± 11.36 g N-NO3 kg-1 on average) to the 1 m deep layer (3.92 ± 4.42 g N-NO3 kg-1 on average), and ensured low nitrate presence in the deepest layer. Under these circumstances the other soil properties play a minor role in reducing soil nitrate presence in soil. However, with excessive N fertilization, the abundance of bacterial gene copies is not sufficient to explain N leaching in soil and other factors, i.e. soil texture and rainfall, become more important in controlling these aspects.

Phosphorus speciation during anaerobic digestion and subsequent solid/liquid separation.

This study aims to investigate the effect of anaerobic digestion (AD) on P species and how the different species are distributed in the digestate and digestate fractions, i.e. liquid and solid fractions. To do so, six full scale AD plants were used in this work and representative biomass samples were collected for investigation. P fractionation proceeded by adopting fractionation protocols consisting in step-by-step extraction with different solvents, (i.e. NaHCO3, HCl and NaOH-EDTA). Subsequently P species in the different fractions were identified by using 31PNMR. On average, AD did not substantially affect P speciation that depended on the P-fraction content of feeds. A high NaHCO3 fraction content in the ingestate determined, also, a high content of this fraction in the digestate, with consequently lower contents of both P-HCl and P-NaOH-EDTA, i.e. digestate P-fraction contents represented an inheritance of P speciation in the ingestate. A feed effect was observed in single plants. Highest pig/cow slurry content in the feeds seemed to decrease readily soluble P (extracted with NaHCO3) content and increased P associated with both organic matter and amorphous Fe/Al in the digestate. Again, using a large amount of digestate in the feed increased P-soluble content in the digestate. 31P NMR analyses revealed that inorganic P compounds dominated the spectra of all biomasses and fractions, with orthophosphate as the predominant species. When present, organic phosphorus compounds were typically represented by monophosphate esters, DNA and phospholipids, with a predominance of monophosphate esters.

Phosphorus removal from livestock effluents: recent technologies and new perspectives on low-cost strategies.

Phosphorus is an essential element in the food production chain, even though it is a non-renewable and limited natural resource, which is going to run out soon. However, it is also a pollutant if massively introduced into soil and water ecosystems. This study focuses on the current alternative low-cost technologies for phosphorus recovery from livestock effluents. Recovering phosphorus from these wastewaters is considered a big challenge due to the high phosphorus concentration (between 478 and 1756 mg L-1) and solids content (> 2-6% of total solids). In particular, the methods discussed in this study are (i) magnesium-based crystallization (struvite synthesis), (ii) calcium-based crystallization, (iii) electrocoagulation and (iv) biochar production, which differ among them for some advantages and disadvantages. According to the data collected, struvite crystallization achieves the highest phosphorus removal (> 95%), even when combined with the use of seawater bittern (a by-product of sea salt processing) instead of magnesium chloride pure salt as the magnesium source. Moreover, the crystallizer technology used for struvite precipitation has already been tested in wastewater treatment plants, and data reported in this review showed the feasibility of this technology for use with high total solids (> 5%) livestock manure. Furthermore, economic and energetic analyses here reported show that struvite crystallization is the most practicable among the low-cost phosphorus recovery technologies for treating livestock effluents.

Measuring the organic amendment properties of the liquid fraction of digestate.

The liquid fraction (LF) of digestate has usually been proposed as a substitute for mineral fertilizers because of the presence of high N content, above all in easily available form (ammonia). The LF was reported to contain about 66% of dry matter from the digestate. This study reports the characterization of the organic carbon (OC) contained in the LF of digestates obtained from full scale plants by screw-press solid/liquid separation, to find out about their organic amendment properties. Results indicate that LF contains stable OC because of the concentration during anaerobic digestion of recalcitrant molecules, and that its biological stability, measured by oxygen uptake rate, was similar to that of compost, i.e. 40 ±â€¯15 mg O2 g DM-1 20 h-1 and 41.1 ±â€¯5.1 mg O2 g DM-1 20 h-1. 13C NMR indicated that LFs were similar each other and were constituted of recalcitrant Alkyl-C (34.82 ±â€¯5.28% OC) derived from plant and fecal material, Aromatic-C (11.10 ±â€¯2.2% OC) derived from lignin-like structures and O/N-alkyl (44.91 ±â€¯4.87% OC) derived from cellulose/hemicelluloses and protein material. A simple simulation of the real C dosed by using LF as N-fertilizers indicated that amendment properties cannot be ignored. All these results seem to indicate good amendment properties for LFs, contrary to the common opinion.

Potential agronomic and environmental properties of thermophilic anaerobically digested municipal sewage sludge measured by an unsupervised and a supervised chemometric approach.

Anaerobic digestion (AD) is the most widely used method of sewage sludge treatment (SS) before its agricultural use. AD achieves the required "sterilisation" of pathogens and is able to cover the energy required by the process, reducing pre-treatment costs, thanks to the production of biogas. The SS agronomic (fertilizer properties), environmental (pollutants contents) characteristics and nuisance to people (odours and pathogens) need to be evaluated together for the safe and useful deployment of SS in agriculture. To evaluate SS properties an unsupervised (Principal Component Analysis) and a supervised (K nearest neighbours) chemometric approach was applied to rank digested SS for agronomic and environmental properties in comparison with other organic matrices for which the agronomic and/or environmental properties are well known or expected. To do so, complete chemical, biological and "impact on people" characterization was carried out on SS ingestate (SS-ing.) and SS digestate (SS-dig.) and another 10 biomasses. The SS-AD process enhanced the agronomic properties of sewage sludge and did not lead to a substantial concentration of pollutants because of the low degradation of organic matter. The best PCA performances were reached for amendment and fertilizer modules but the results found for the environment and nuisance to inhabitants were not satisfactory. The KNN approach proposed to evaluate the suitability of a biomass for agricultural purposes, represents a win-win approach as it allows one to avoid time-consuming and costly full field studies.

The stage of soil development modulates rhizosphere effect along a High Arctic desert chronosequence.

In mature soils, plant species and soil type determine the selection of root microbiota. Which of these two factors drives rhizosphere selection in barren substrates of developing desert soils has, however, not yet been established. Chronosequences of glacier forelands provide ideal natural environments to identify primary rhizosphere selection factors along the changing edaphic conditions of a developing soil. Here, we analyze changes in bacterial diversity in bulk soils and rhizospheres of a pioneer plant across a High Arctic glacier chronosequence. We show that the developmental stage of soil strongly modulates rhizosphere community assembly, even though plant-induced selection buffers the effect of changing edaphic factors. Bulk and rhizosphere soils host distinct bacterial communities that differentially vary along the chronosequence. Cation exchange capacity, exchangeable potassium, and metabolite concentration in the soil account for the rhizosphere bacterial diversity. Although the soil fraction (bulk soil and rhizosphere) explains up to 17.2% of the variation in bacterial microbiota, the soil developmental stage explains up to 47.7% of this variation. In addition, the operational taxonomic unit (OTU) co-occurrence network of the rhizosphere, whose complexity increases along the chronosequence, is loosely structured in barren compared with mature soils, corroborating our hypothesis that soil development tunes the rhizosphere effect.

The effect of anaerobic digestion and storage on indicator microorganisms in swine and dairy manure.

The aim of this experimental study was to evaluate the influence of anaerobic digestion and storage on indicator microorganisms in swine and dairy excreta. Samples were collected every 90 days for 15 months at eight farms, four pig, and four dairy farms, four of them having a biogas plant. Moreover, to evaluate storage effects on samples, 20 l of manure and slurry taken at each farm (digested manure only in farms with a biogas plant) were stored in a controlled climatic chamber at 18 °C, for 6 months. The bacterial load and the chemical-physical characteristics of excreta were evaluated at each sampling time, stored slurry, and manure were sampled and analyzed every 2 months. A high variability of the concentration of bacteria in the different excreta types was observed during the experiment, mainly depending on the type and time of treatment. No sample revealed either the presence of Escherichia coli O157:H7 or of Salmonella, usually linked to the temporary rearing of infected animals in facilities. Anaerobic digestion and storage affected in a significant way the reduction of indicator bacteria like lactobacilli, coliforms, and streptococci. Anaerobic digestion lowered coliforms in pig slurry (- 2.80 log, P < 0.05), streptococci in dairy manure (- 2.44 log, P < 0.001) and in pig slurry (- 1.43 log, P < 0.05), and lactobacilli in pig slurry (- 3.03 log, P < 0.05). Storage lowered coliforms and the other indicators counts, in particular in fresh wastes, while clostridia did not show a reduction in concentration.

Solid and liquid fractionation of digestate: Mass balance, chemical characterization, and agronomic and environmental value.

Solid-liquid (S/L) separation of digestate (D) represents a simple technology able to produce two fractions having different composition. The aim of this work was to study the effect of S/L separation on dry matter (DM), nitrogen (TKN), phosphorus (P2O5) and heavy metals (HM) repartition into these two fractions and to characterize them. Therefore, thirteen full-scale digestion plants were studied and D, LF and SF were collected during three seasons of the year. Results obtained indicated that unexpectedly, on a mass balance, the liquid fraction still contains the majority of DM, i.e. 67% of the total of D. LF also contained 87% and 71% of TKN and P2O5 respectively. HM contents were in line with typical NP-organic fertilizers. Chemical characterization suggested that the LF can be used as a substitute for mineral N fertilizers because of its high N content, while SF can be proposed as an NP-organic fertilizer.

Chlorpyrifos-methyl solubilisation by humic acids used as bio-surfactants extracted from lignocelluloses and kitchen wastes.

Chlorpyrifos-methyl (CLP-m) is a widely used organophosphate insecticide that can accumulate in soil and become toxic to humans. CLP-m can be removed from soil by its solubilisation using synthetic surfactants. However, synthetic surfactants can accumulate in soil causing contamination phenomena themselves. Bio-surfactants can be used as an alternative to synthetic ones, reducing costs and environmental issues. In this work, humic acid (HA) extracted from raw biomasses, i.e. lignocelluloses (HAL) and lignocelluloses plus kitchen food waste (HALF), corresponding composts (C) (HALC and HALFC) and leonardite (HAc), were tested in comparison with commercial surfactants, i.e. SDS, Tween 20 and DHAB, to solubilize CLP-m. Results obtained indicated that only biomass-derived HA, composted biomass-derived HA, and SDS solubilized CLP-m: SDS = 0.006; HAL = 0.007; HALC = 0.009 g; HALF = 0.025; HALFC = 0.024) (g CLP-m g(-1) surfactant). Lignocelluloses HAs (HAL, HALF) solubilized CLP-m just as well as SDS while lignocellulosic plus kitchen food waste HA (HALF, HALFC) showed a three times higher CLP-m solubilisation capability. This difference was attributed to the higher concentration of alkyl-Carbon that creates strong links with CLP-m in the hydrophobic micelle-core of the surfactants.

Investigating organic molecules responsible of auxin-like activity of humic acid fraction extracted from vermicompost.

This work studied the auxin-like activity of humic acids (HA) obtained from vermicomposts produced using leather wastes plus cattle dung at different maturation stages (fresh, stable and mature). Bioassays were performed by testing HA concentrations in the range of 100-6000mgcarbonL(-1). (13)C CPMAS-NMR and GC-MS instrumental methods were used to assess the effect of biological processes and starting organic mixtures on HA composition. Not all HAs showed IAA-like activity and in general, IAA-like activity increased with the length of the vermicomposting process. The presence of leather wastes was not necessary to produce the auxin-like activity of HA, since HA extracted from a mix of cattle manure and sawdust, where no leather waste was added, showed IAA-like activity as well. CPMAS (13)CNMR revealed that HAs were similar independently of the mix used and that the humification process involved the increasing concentration of pre-existing alkali soluble fractions in the biomass. GC/MS allowed the identification of the molecules involved in IAA-like effects: carboxylic acids and amino acids. The concentration of active molecules, rather than their simple presence in HA, determined the bio-stimulating effect, and a good linear regression between auxin-like activity and active stimulating molecules concentration was found (R(2)=-0.85; p<0.01, n=6).

New energy crop giant cane (Arundo donax L.) can substitute traditional energy crops increasing biogas yield and reducing costs.

Giant cane is a promising non-food crop for biogas production. Giant cane and corn silages coming from full-scale fields were tested, in mixtures with pig slurry, for biomethane production by a continuous stirred tank lab-scale-reactor (CSTR) approach. Results indicated that giant cane produced less biomethane than corn, i.e. 174±10 N m(3) CH4 Mg(-1) TS(-1) and 245±26 N m(3) CH4 Mg(-1) TS(-1), respectively. On the other hand, because of its high field biomass production, the biogas obtainable per Ha was higher for giant cane than for corn, i.e. 12,292 N m(3) CH4 Ha(-1) and 4549 N m(3) CH4 Ha(-1), respectively. Low energetic and agronomic inputs for giant cane cultivation led to a considerable reduction in the costs of producing both electricity and biomethane, i.e. 0.50 € N m(-3) CH4(-1) and 0.81 € N m(-3) CH4(-1), and 0.10 € kW hEE(-1) and 0.19 € kW hEE(-1) for biomethane and electricity production, and for giant cane and corn mixtures respectively.