Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
The main environmental issue associated with compost production is the production of a
liquid leachate. Leachate from municipal wastes contains carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium
and trace elements that can be used as nutrients by plants. The advantages of the use of organic
wastes such as compost leachate as fertilizers are evident. Their use would reduce the consumption
of commercial fertilizers, which need, with their production, high cost and energy. This work aims to
determine the physical and chemical properties of a specific leachate with a variable composition,
collected from the composting line of a mechanical and biological treatment facility. The goal is to
assess if the leachates can be used as a potential source for fertilizers, and thus develop and design a
sequence of processes which could effectively convert the leachates to commercial fertilizers according
to the requirements of the proposal of regulation of the European Parliament of 2016 for fertilizers.
Preliminary results show that the leachate samples qualitatively meet the requirements established for
the composition of commercial fertilizers, especially organo-mineral fertilizers. Furthermore, there is
no production cost of leachate as a raw material. The results show that the leachate is characterized
by manageable concentrations of heavy metals which can be removed by adsorption processes,
and it presents suitable amounts of organic carbon after a water removal procedure. However,
the establishment of the conditions for suitable conversion processes are still under investigation
considering the high composition variability due to factors like storage and environmental conditions.
Description
Keywords
Anthocyanins Anti-proliferative Antimicrobial Antioxidant activity Hydrolysable tannins
Citation
Albuquerque, Bianca R.; Pereira, Carla; Calhelha, Ricardo C.; José Alves, Maria; Abreu, Rui M.V.; Barros, Lillian; Oliveira, M. Beatriz P.P.; Ferreira, Isabel C.F.R. (2020). Jabuticaba residues (Myrciaria jaboticaba (Vell.) Berg) are rich sources of valuable compounds with bioactive properties. Food Chemistry. ISSN 0308-8146. 309, p. 1-10
