Biogas-based electricity generation in swine farm in Thailand: Economic and CO2 reduction aspects

Abstract

Biogas-based electricity generation is one of the challenging in organic waste management in the developing countries. This paper investigates the existing electricity generation technology in swine farm with the supporting of feed-in tariffs and incentive of investment under Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) in Thailand. In swine farm the rearing capacity of 70,000 swines has potential for generating a minimum of 2,736,000 m3 of biogas per year from swine’s manure. This amount represents the contribution of biogas derived from swine farm to climate change mitigation if biogas is used for electricity generation. Since Thailand provides incentive investment of electric power generated from renewable sources and other biological wastes in terms of feed-in tariffs and feed-in premium, these incentives can motivate private enterprises to invest and supply electricity to the national grid. To generate electricity from biogas in swine farm it also contributes in CO2 reduction and creates potential jobs. The increased capacity of its two gas engine generators with total capacity of 870 kW can generate electricity of 6,144 MWh per year and can increase the average carbon credits of 32,750 ton CO2 per year. This electricity production cost is the lowest when compares to other biogas-based electricity generations such as in palm oil plants, in cassava plants, and in landfill-based plants. Results of this study show that the feed-in tariffs of $0.1074 per unit of electricity, and the supporting mechanisms under CDM scheme for 10 years can shorten payback periods and increase the return of investment to the renewable energy investors.