Participation in International Conference on Zero Greenhouse Emission in High Productive Agriculture

Aarhus University is organising the international conference on 'Zero Greenhouse Emission in High Productive Agriculture - ZEA', to be held in the first week of May 2022 in Hellerup, Denmark. The conference intends to give experienced and young scientists a forum to present novel technologies and management practices with a Zero Greenhouse Gas Emissions in High Productive Agriculture (ZEA) potential. Furthermore, it will allow the scientist to discuss their work with fellow scientists and present it in the context of the overall policy targets. The conference will be hosted and supported by Novo Nordisk Foundation.

During the conference, Jared Nyang'Au will present part of his work on optimising the anaerobic digestion process. By reducing decomposable organic matter in digestates, the anaerobic digestion (AD) process improves the fertiliser value of the digestates and reduces greenhouse gas emissions during storage and field application. Despite this, only 40-70% of the initial carbon in agricultural substrates is converted into biogas, resulting in a digestate with a residual methane potential due to undecomposed carbon. Through a two-step AD process that prolongs the hydraulic retention time of the substrates in reactors, more biogas can be recovered from digestates without affecting the long-term soil carbon sequestration. Furthermore, this approach of AD re-configurations can replace more mineral N fertilisers due to a higher N fertiliser value in the digestates and reduce methane emissions during storage.

For more information about the conference:  https://conferences.au.dk/zea

By Jared Nyang'Au