WRAP will be funding trials to establish new markets for use of digestate within the regeneration and landscape sectors.
Digestate is a by-product of anaerobic digestion process which can be applied to land as a bio- fertiliser and can also be used with other organic materials to improve soil quality and produce a useful source of nutrients.
Within the trials, users of digestate will be provided with practical guidance based on the use of the material and commercially tested methods of application. By doing this it will increase the opportunities for producers of digestate by building confidence in the use of material.
WRAP head of organics and energy Ian Wardle said: “It is important that we find new markets for this useful, nutrient-rich product. Along with agriculture, the landscape and regeneration sectors are significant potential markets for digestate.
“These trials will provide evidence to support the use of digestate in landscape and regeneration applications, giving users the information and confidence they need to consider using the material in the future.”
The different field trials will examine viability of using digestate in a number of ways such as sports turf and production to assess the use of the liquid fraction of digestate as a bio-fertiliser, energy crop trials to establish energy crops like miscanthus and reed canary grass on brownfield sites, and soil improvement and manufacture to measure whether digestate can be blended with other materials to produce improve in-situ soils.
