Evaluation of Crop System Considering Both Economic and Energy Aspects with Web Application: The Use of Slurry Digestate as a Fertilizer Vs. the Traditional Mineral Fertilization

The experimentation was carried out during three years (2007-2009). The use of machinery and all other technical means was recorded and loaded into a web application made by the authors (www.biomass4energy.eu). The application compute the costs based on real machinery use and fit very well the needs of all kinds of farms and sizes. Both economic and energy balance for a single crop are presented. For the analysis the slurry was computed just the cost of the distribution and no-value (both energetic and economic) was given to the fertilizer. Were considered two farms of 30 ha each. The distribution of slurry was considered ad 1,5 km distance. The results showed important economic convenience to use the digestate from biogas plants even if this fertilizer should be balanced with mineral fertilizers. The most important result was the energetic balance: the crop treated with slurry yield Input/output ratio on average of 13,1, while the conventional crops reached 7,04. The net energy value was 175 GJ/ha vs. 140 GJ/ha for the slurry treated plots vs. the conventional treatment. The web application allow a fair comparison of traditional and biomass crops and it is useful to assess not just the traditional crops but also the biomass crops, considering both economic and energetic aspects.

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