Use of African Palm Digestate and Banana Peel Digestate as Fertilizer in Agricultural Soils (#1115)

Authors

Barillas Marroquin, Melvin Jose

Rodríguez, Ada S.

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to address two issues: the search for solutions to the high costs of chemical fertilizers and the proper management of digestate, a by-product of anaerobic digestion that is considered a waste. The main objective of the research is to evaluate the effectiveness of digestate as an agricultural fertilizer through soil pH, water retention and macronutrient content tests to be compared with conventional chemical fertilizers. The research employed both a quantitative approach in pH and macronutrient content tests, where the percentage of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium was analyzed, and a qualitative approach in the water retention test. The results reveal that African palm digestate presents notable percentages of macronutrients, with 30.18% nitrogen, 13.85% phosphorus and 13.77% potassium, which positions it as a viable alternative to the ternary chemical fertilizers 15-15-15 containing 15% of each of the three essential macronutrients and 12-24-12 containing 12% nitrogen, 24% phosphorus and 12% potassium. In contrast, banana peel digestate and dehydrated banana peel digestate do not exceed 6% in any macronutrient. African palm digestate has the highest macronutrient content, followed by chemical fertilizers, which exceed the content of banana peel digestate and dehydrated banana peel digestate, so it can be concluded that African palm digestate is a good alternative to chemical fertilizers.