A comprehensive review on electricity generation and GHG emission reduction potentials through anaerobic digestion of agricultural and livestock/slaughterhouse wastes in Iran

Abstract

Agricultural and livestock/slaughterhouse wastes are produced in huge quantities and could be promising sources for electricity generation to partially reduce dependence on fossil-oriented electricity. In light of that, the state of the production for these wastes in different parts of the globe was first presented. Subsequently, various waste-to-energy technologies and their electricity generation feasibility from both environmental and economic perspectives were reviewed. Finally, electricity generation and greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction potentials through anaerobic digestion of the above-mentioned wastes generated in each province of Iran in 2016 were investigated as a case study. Accordingly, Khuzestan province with the highest amount of agro-wastes (7.61 million tons) and Sistan and Baluchestan province with the highest amount of livestock/slaughterhouse wastes (10.69 million tons) had the maximum electricity generation potentials of 82.83 MW and 164.23 MW, respectively. Moreover, the country's total potentials for electricity generation from these wastes was determined at 2848.26 MW. Based on the life cycle assessment (LCA) results, a minimum of 10,693.5 thousand tons CO2eq/yr could be avoided by valorizing these wastes into electricity in Iran. This would be translated into 1.5% reduction of Iran's annual GHG emissions; a promising achievement given Iran's international GHGs reduction commitment. Moreover, if a short-term time horizon would be considered for electricity generation from these wastes, the reduction rate could reach 24,153 thousand tons CO2eq/yr, i.e., 3.39% reduction of Iran's annual GHG emissions. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report scrutinizing electricity generation potentials from both agricultural and livestock/slaughterhouse wastes in Iran while assessing the consequent GHG emission reduction potentials. The outcomes of the study could assist policy makers with decisions aimed at taking advantage of these resources while the platform introduced pave the way for other researchers to conduct similar studies in different parts of the world.