Digestate – Recycling to Land

The current Waste Management Plan for England sets out drivers for the UK to produce more renewable energy and sustainable products derived from waste materials. Following this mission, William Gilder Ltd works closely with a number of key Anaerobic Digestion (AD) operators to recycle both liquid and dewatered digestate products to agricultural land.

Liquid digestate is a nutrient rich by-product from the AD process that can be used as a fertiliser, replacing the need for purchasing and applying fossil fuel derived artificial based alternatives. The graph below illustrates a profile and quantities

We typically spread digestate via direct injection or trailing shoe that is accredited to the Publicly Available Standard ‘110’ (PAS110). Where operators have not yet achieved this standard, our FACTS trained agronomists and land bank managers will help farmers to spread digestate safely using relevant Environment Agency land spreading permits/deployments.

Typical average ‘key’ nutrient values (kg per ha) for liquid digestate, based on an application rate of 50t/ha are shown in the table below;