Abstract
Adequate management of biomass residues generated by agricultural and food industry can reduce their negative impacts on the environment. The alternative use for agricultural waste is production of biogas. Biomass feedstock intended as a substrate for the agricultural biogas plants may include energy crops, bio-waste, products of animal and plant origin and organic residues from food production. This study reviews the potential of selected biomass residues from the agri-food industry in terms of use for agricultural biogas production in Poland. The most common agri-food residues used as substrates for biogas plants in Poland are maize silage, slurry, and distillery waste. It is important that the input for the agricultural biogas installations can be based on local wastes and co-products that require appropriate disposal or storage conditions and might be burdensome for the environment. The study also discusses several limitations that might have an unfavourable impact regarding biogas plants development in Poland. Given the estimated biomass potential, the assumptions defining the scope of use of agricultural biogas and the undeniable benefits provided by biogas production, agricultural biogas plants should be considered as a promising branch of sustainable electricity and thermal energy production in Poland, especially in rural areas.
Highlights
Global environmental change caused by excessive exploitation of natural resources and combustion of fossil fuels causes a range of negative impacts on human health and functioning of ecosystems humans depend on
Because the production of agricultural biogas requires a daily input of substrates [30], location of agricultural biogas installation and its capacity to process the biomass is determined by the constant supply of raw material [31]
Due to the growing interest of advantages resulting from agricultural biogas production, the number of installations built in recent years and high costs of the feedstock, more attention is paid for alternative substrates for biogas plants
Summary
Global environmental change caused by excessive exploitation of natural resources and combustion of fossil fuels causes a range of negative impacts on human health and functioning of ecosystems humans depend on. Inability to effectively manage wastes as recently highlighted by scientists and decision-makers lead to serious environmental and socio-economic problems that need urgent and reliable solutions [4,5]. In response to this problem, a number of scientific initiatives were founded with the goal of creating new usages for organic residues [6]. Biomass [8] represents an important source of alternative energy and provides an opportunity to decrease environmental problems such as pollution and depletion of natural resources [6]. It focuses on the assessment of the suitability of biomass from agricultural production and by-products or residues from the agri-food industry as a substrate for biogas production
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