Abstract
The aim of this study was to evaluate life cycle environmental impacts associated with the generation of electricity from biogas produced by the anaerobic digestion (AD) of agricultural products and waste. Five real plants in Italy were considered, using maize silage, slurry, and tomato waste as feedstocks and cogenerating electricity and heat; the latter is not utilized. The results suggest that maize silage and the operation of anaerobic digesters, including open storage of digestate, are the main contributors to the impacts of biogas electricity. The system that uses animal slurry is the best option, except for the marine and terrestrial ecotoxicity. The results also suggest that it is environmentally better to have smaller plants using slurry and waste rather than bigger installations, which require maize silage to operate efficiently. Electricity from biogas is environmentally more sustainable than grid electricity for seven out of 11 impacts considered. However, in comparison with natural gas, biogas electricity is worse for seven out of 11 impacts. It also has mostly higher impacts than other renewables, with a few exceptions, notably solar photovoltaics. Thus, for the AD systems and mesophilic operating conditions considered in this study, biogas electricity can help reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions relative to a fossil-intensive electricity mix; however, some other impacts increase. If mitigation of climate change is the main aim, other renewables have a greater potential to reduce GHG emissions. If, in addition to this, other impacts are considered, then hydro, wind, and geothermal power are better alternatives to biogas electricity. However, utilization of heat would improve significantly its environmental sustainability, particularly global warming potential, summer smog, and the depletion of abiotic resources and the ozone layer. Further improvements can be achieved by banning open digestate storage to prevent methane emissions and regulating digestate spreading onto land to minimize emissions of ammonia and related environmental impacts.
Highlights
The need to mitigate climate change and improve security of energy supply is driving a growing interest in renewable energy sources, with many world regions and countries setting ambitious targets
The results suggest that biogas electricity generated by Plant 5 is environmentally the best option among the five plants considered (Figure 4), largely because it does not use maize silage as a feedstock
The aim of this study was to evaluate the life cycle environmental impacts associated with generation of electricity from biogas produced by anaerobic digestion (AD) of agricultural products and waste
Summary
The need to mitigate climate change and improve security of energy supply is driving a growing interest in renewable energy sources, with many world regions and countries setting ambitious targets. In 2013, it had 7874 AD plants with a total installed electrical capacity of 3384 MW, which generated 27 TWh/year (EurObserv’ER, 2014; Fuchsz and Kohlheb, 2015). Follows closely in third place at 7.4 TWh of electricity per year produced by 1300 AD plants with a total installed capacity of 1000 MW (Brizzo, 2015). The plants are fed largely with maize grown for this purpose, which in Italy occupies 10% of the total maize cultivation area (1,172,000 ha) (Casati, 2011) This is still only half the area in Germany (2,282,000 ha) where it covers one-third of the total maize land (Dressler et al, 2012)
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