Biomethanation Plant Research Articles

Social Cost Benefit Analysis of Operating Compressed Biomethane (CBM) Transit Buses in Cities of Developing Nations: A Case Study

Cities in developing nations have to deal with two significant sustainability challenges amidst rampant urbanization. First, consumer-generated food waste is increasing monumentally since open dumping is still followed as a predominant practice, the negative environmental externalities associated with food waste disposal are growing beyond manageable proportions. Second, the dependency on conventional fuels like diesel to operate transit buses, which is one of the major causes for deteriorating urban air quality. A nexus established between food waste management and operation of transit buses can improve the sustainable performance of cities in developing nations. In this study, a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) supported Social Cost-Benefit Analysis (SCBA) is performed by considering a hypothetical scenario of establishing a large food waste treating biomethanation plant in Mumbai, India. The food waste from the city is transported to a biomethanation plant where it is subjected to an anaerobic digestion (AD) process. The biogas produced as a byproduct is upgraded to compressed biomethane (CBM) and used as a vehicle fuel to operate transit buses within the city. The LCA results suggest that CBM buses can reduce greenhouse gas and particulate matter emissions by 60% compared to diesel or compressed natural gas (CNG) buses. Fossil depletion potential of CBM buses is 98% lower than diesel, suggesting CBM’s importance in decoupling developing nations dependency on imported crude oil. The SCBA considers: (a) costs to stakeholders, i.e., fees for open dumping of food waste and cost of fuel for operating transit buses; and (b) social costs incurred by negative environmental externalities (obtained by monetizing LCA results) resulting from both, open dumping as well as fuel combustion. SCBA results indicate that the food waste-based CBM model can save 6.86 billion Indian rupees (USD 99.4 million) annually for Mumbai. The savings are made due to a reduction in stakeholder’s costs (fuel) coupled with societal, i.e., environmental externality costs if entire transit bus fleet operates on CBM fuel instead of conventional fuel mix (33:67 diesel to CNG) currently used. Although the study is performed for Mumbai, the results will be replicable to any city of developing nations facing similar issues.

Sustainable Italian Cities: The Added Value of Biomethane from Organic Waste

This work focuses on the profitability of biomethane plants and the environmental benefits obtained recovering the organic fraction of municipal solid waste in Italy. The economic model is based on the calculations of the net present value, considering multiple capacities of biomethane production (ranging from 50 to 500 m3/h) and alternative scenarios based on the variation in subsidies, the selling price of biomethane, and the net revenues from the treatment of organic waste. The environmental analysis quantifies the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions obtained by natural gas vehicles fueled by biomethane. The economic and environmental results encourage energy change that can be achieved by municipalities that support the transformation of natural resources into green fuels. Across 15 Italian municipalities, the potential biomethane production varies from 80.4 million m3/year to 102.8 million m3/year, with an overall net present value ranging from 135 to 187 million €. In addition, the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions varies from 127 to 162 thousand-ton CO2eq/year. Both the economic and environmental results demonstrate that biomethane is a renewable resource with added value for municipalities.

An economic analysis of biogas-biomethane chain from animal residues in Italy

The green revolution represents a substantial investment plan on renewable energy resources (RESs) reducing the country’s dependence on fossil fuels energy. Currently, some resources are not completely exploited and the transformation of waste residues into green energy is able to develop circular economy models. Europe has a great potential coming from animal residues and the transport sector has a weak growth of RESs. Biomethane, also called green gas, is a possible valid solution. This work provides an economic analysis regarding both biogas and biomethane plants that use several typologies of animal residues. Net Present Value (NPV) and Discounted Payback Time (DPBT) are used as indexes. The production of electricity by biogas plants contributes to reducing the levels of emissions, but its upgrading can conduct to increase environmental performance. This is not coupled with an increase in profits. Results of the work define the minimum size in which both biogas and biomethane plants are profitable and the key-role of subsidies trying to provide policy guidance to governments and planners.

Spatial-economic optimisation of biomethane injection into natural gas grid: The case at southern Malaysia

Energy is widely used in industry for heating and cooling, with natural gas (NG) being the largest primary energy source in Malaysia, closely followed by coal. Renewable energy, such as biogas upgrading to biomethane, could cut the use of fossil fuels by supplementing NG usage due to their similar physicochemical and thermochemical characteristics. Biogas production plants in Malaysia are more commonly seen in waste-to-energy scenarios, with the technology anaerobic digestion, and their deployment is supported via feed-in tariffs (FiT) for power generation. Other potential applications such as the conversion of biogas into biomethane, injection into the natural gas grid or transportation through a virtual pipeline may still need further technical development. This paper presents spatial techno economic optimisation modelling using BeWhere to determine decentralised biomethane production plants using feedstock from multiple sources of biogas, including palm oil mill effluent (POME), food waste, cattle manure and chicken manure. This model considered potential configurations and sizes of the biomethane plants, the transportation of biomethane using a virtual pipeline (at 250 psig) and demand in one of the states in Malaysia, namely Johor. It was found that two to four biomethane plants with capacities ranging between 125 and 700 m3/h were located in densely populated areas or heavier industrial consumers when the carbon tax was implemented at 167.71 EUR/tCO2 (800 MYR/tCO2). Sensitivity analysis suggested that biomethane production increases with the increasing country renewable energy share target to beyond 2080 MW. It is recommended that specific policy regulations and Feed-in Tariff (FiT) mechanisms are used to expand the biomethane market share in the country.

Sustainability of Biogas Based Projects: Technical and Economic Analysis

Biomethane is a renewable gas produced by the transformation of organic matter. It can lead to emissions reduction and it contributes to increasing methane production. Incentive policies favour its development and for this reason, the objective of this paper is to investigate the economic performance of biomethane plants and their process monitoring by electronic systems. Mathematical modeling is here presented to study the financial feasibility of biomethane plants in function of the size (100 m3/h, 250 m3/h, 500 m3/h, 1000 m3/h), the feedstock used (organic fraction of municipal solid waste and a mixture of 30% maize and 70% manure residues on a weight basic) and the destination for final use (fed into the grid, destined for cogeneration or sold as vehicle fuel). From an economic point of view the plant performance is studied by economic tools as Net Present Value and Discounted Payback Time and the uncertainty analysis is implemented using Monte Carlo method. Moreover, from a technical point of view, process monitoring is analyzed to understand what happens in a biomethane plant and help to maintain a stable process. The results show that the profitability of biomethane plants is verified in several scenarios presenting losses only if subsidies were removed.

Biomethanation Plant of Choithram Vegetable Market, Indore: A Case Study

The major objective of this study is to analyze the technology used in the Biomethanation Plant of Choithram Vegetable market, Indore. The installed capacity of the plant is 20 tons per day of fruits and vegetable wastes, which generates nearly 2400 m³ of Bio-CNG per day. Waste to Energy is perceived as a means to dispose of municipal solid waste, produce energy, recover materials, and free up scarce land that would otherwise have been used for landfill. Bio-CNG is the purified form of Biogas, where all the unwanted gases are removed to the purity of above 95%. A replacement to those exhausting resources can be made by using Bio-CNG. This paper reviews various aspects of Biomethanation technology, various factors affecting the Biogas generation, physical and chemical characteristics of Biogas and various researches adopted in the plant.

From Paris agreement to business cases for upgraded biogas: Analysis of potential market uptake for biomethane plants in Germany using biogenic carbon capture and utilization technologies

The Paris Agreement brings countries together in a combined effort to combat climate change and its effects. A key target is the reduction of energy related greenhouse gas emissions. Providing biogas from biomass is one option to provide renewable and less carbon intensive fuels. When upgraded to biomethane it may be a substitute for natural gas and thus may have many application pathways. Recognising this potential many European countries installed governmental support programmes to stimulate market growth over the last decade. However, most of the installed schemes in Europe are time-limited. Besides being time-limited most of the schemes include a degression of compensation over time, resulting in many having limited success over longer time frames. This study questions the feasibility of near-term business cases for biomethane plants and analyses options for making them less dependent on governmental support programmes. Currently a market potential is seen in the utilization of process carbon dioxide in carbon capture and utilization or carbon capture and storage pathways, because it is a widely available side product from biogas upgrading. Therefore, we examined three business cases for its utilization in across sectors. To answer the research question we use a previously developed biomethane market simulation model and added an extension for new business cases. Results indicate that there are specific business options in the field of 2160 m³ h−1 to 20,840 m³ h−1 that are economical feasible under certain circumstances.

A techno-economic assessment of biogas upgrading in a developed market

The development of renewable energies was impressive in recent years on a global scale. This produced changes regarding production processes, citizens' habits, industrial investments and consumer decisions. In this context, the policy-maker played a crucial role. The subsidies are able to determine the development of a specific market. Biogas market spread globally, while biomethane market concentrated in some territories. Green gas can be used as vehicle fuel or injected into the gas grid but also burnt for co-generation.The present work proposes a techno-economic analysis for an existing biogas plant. In particular, the analysis was focused on the comparison between two possible strategic plans, in order to establish which one was the best in terms of profitability: the first one is the expansion of the plant to upgrade biogas to biomethane, whereas the second one is to continue the production of biogas as planned when the plant was constructed.The Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) method was proposed in this paper, and the Net Present Value (NPV) is the main index used. One 250 m3/h biomethane plant located in Italy using pressure swing adsorption (PSA) technique is analysed. The results demonstrated the positive environmental impact deriving from the use of zeolites synthesized from spent fly ash and the profitability is verified only in some scenarios. However, they are limited only to the construction of new biomethane plants, while the upgrading of existing biogas plants are always unprofitable. A Break-Even Point (BEP) analysis quantifies the value of subsidies of biogas and biomethane by which the profitability could be reached. Biomethane can contribute to the development of circular economy models, while the sustainability targets are achieved only in some scenarios.

Disposal of Municipal Solid Waste by Bio Methanation in Sangli City

India is developing country where population increases per year. As time progressed the peoples are migrated from towns to cities, they generate more and more MSW. Nowadays in India, the most common ways of handling waste are to open dumping and uncontrolled burning. These methods are causing severe environmental pollution and health problem. However, there are some other effective methods are present in nowadays to reduce the amount of waste generated such as Bio methanation. Today in sangli city the collected waste is sent to the landfill site without doing any process on it. Hence it is necessary to design solid waste treatment facility to the sangli city. In this paper and attempt is made to design biomethane plant for disposing of waste generated in sangli city which provides number of other benefits in the form of methane gas which could be used for cooking, electricity generation and manure for farming. The study concluded that the installation of biomethane plant in sangli city for disposing of MSW is improving solid waste management practice so as to reduce environment pollution, saving transportation cost of waste and improve quality of life in city.

Operational strategy of high rate anaerobic digester with mixed organic wastes: effect of co-digestion on biogas yield at full scale

ABSTRACTThe present research work is aimed at providing an economically feasible solution for the farmers to exploit the mixed organic wastes (MOW) as resources for the generation of biogas based electrical power and utilize the same for irrigation purpose to reduce the dependence on electricity board. A full scale biomethanation plant has been installed based on anaerobic gas lift reactor (AGR) technology to analyse, understand the operational parameters of anaerobic digestion and assess the performance of a high rate biomethanation plant by co-digesting the MOW such as poultry litter (PL), cattle manure (CM) and napier grass (NG) at ambient temperature. The biomethanation plant was incorporated with inline pre and post-processing unit assembly. The plant was fed with 1000 kg of MOW per day having 250 kg of total solids, about 178–200 kg of volatile solids and operated continuously for 52 weeks under ambient temperature. Electrical power generated (84.5–104 kWh/day) from biogas (65–80 m3/day) containing methane (40–48 m3/day) was used for operating the water pumps for agricultural purpose and the digestate (115–130 kg/day) was exploited as organic manure for growing crops in the same field. Napier grass was grown in the same land and other feedstocks were procured from the nearby area at the cost of $10–$15 per ton. Around 6 acres of land was being cultivated using the biogas based power generated from the MOW that was being used for growing vegetables and maize.

Application of Biomethane for Gas Supply Within the Settlements

The work is devoted to the problem of using bio gas fuel in gas supply systems. The analysis of the work of bio gas stations and bio methane plants in the countries of the European Union was conducted, the ways of using the produced bio gas were considered. The possibility and prospects of using bio gas in centralized gas supply systems have been studied. It is established that the total potential of bio methane production from agricultural waste of the Belgorod region is 465 million m3 / year, which is 14% of the annual volume of gas consumption in the region.

An economic and carbon analysis of biomethane production from food waste to be used as a transport fuel in Mexico

Abstract Biomethane produced from food waste is a potential fuel for urban buses in Mexico to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in transport. Biomethane from food waste can potentially produce 42.32 PJ per year, equivalent to 6.5% of the energy content of diesel used in transport in 2015. By replacing diesel with biomethane from food waste, a reduction of 17.91 MtCO2e can be effected, 6.06% of the 2050 GHG emissions target. The economic feasibility of a biomethane plant for a Mexican city was investigated using two scenarios: co-digestion of food waste and sewage sludge (scenario 1); and co-digestion of food waste and pig slurry (scenario 2), both scenarios utilising anaerobic high density polyurethane digesters. Economic performance based on net present value (NPV) gave a positive outcome for scenario 1 with 33% of the revenue coming from gate fees. The levelised cost of energy (LCOE) for biomethane was $US 11.32/GJ ($US 40c/m3 CH4). Scenario 2 has a negative NPV; to break even (LCOE) biomethane has to be sold at $US 14.38/GJ ($US 51 c/m3 CH4). Biomethane from scenario 2 can be economically viable if a subsidy of $US 1.38/GJ is applied, equivalent to 5% of the cost of diesel.

Optimizing Waste Heat Utilization in Vehicle Bio-Methane Plants

Current vehicle bio-methane plants have drawbacks associated with high energy consumption and low recovery levels of waste heat produced during the gasification process. In this paper, we have optimized the performance of heat exchange networks using pinch analysis and through the introduction of heat pump integration technology. Optimal results for the heat exchange network of a bio-gas system producing 10,000 cubic meters have been calculated using a pinch point temperature of 50 °C, a minimum heating utility load of 234.02 kW and a minimum cooling utility load of 201.25 kW. These optimal parameters are predicted to result in energy savings of 116.08 kW (19.75%), whilst the introduction of new heat pump integration technology would afford further energy savings of 95.55 kW (16.25%). The combined energy saving value of 211.63 kW corresponds to a total energy saving of 36%, with economic analysis revealing that these reforms would give annual savings of 103,300 USD. The installation costs required to introduce these process modifications are predicted to require an initial investment of 423,200 USD, which would take 4.1 years to reach payout time based on predicted annual energy savings.

Making money from waste: The economic viability of producing biogas and biomethane in the Idaho dairy industry

Farm operations in the USA and Europe have seen a radical change in the last decades: small sized farms are disappearing, and farm size and total livestock on larger farms are increasing. The resulting spatial density of animals causes several environmental impacts. Anaerobic digestion is one promising technical solution to alleviate most of these impacts while simultaneously providing a regional energy source. This analysis assesses the economic viability of using dairy-cow manure for either (i) the on-farm production and use of biogas to generate electricity and heat or (ii) the upgrading biogas to biomethane, a natural-gas substitute. A non-linear optimization model was developed to optimize plant capacity for anaerobic digestion and maximize the net present value for each option by farm size. In this study, we used Idaho‘s dairy farms as a case study. The analysis implies that at least 3000 cows per farm are required for an economically viable anaerobic-digestion plant operation. For farms with up to 3600 animals, the highest net present value was achieved for the on-farm use of biogas. Farms larger than that achieved their best economic results via the production of biomethane. In total about 45% of Idaho’s dairy manure could be utilized by economically feasible biogas and biomethane plants. A higher manure utilization rate could be achieved through joint, cooperative anaerobic digestion plants and manure transportation. The results can be transferred to other regions and countries, respectively, to reduce the negative impact of intensive livestock farming.

Physico-chemical characterization of municipal solid waste from Tricity region of Northern India: a case study

An integrated solid waste management system is an effective method for controlling the huge volumes of solid waste generated in urban locales in India. The success of the integrated solid waste management system depends upon the amount and type generated from different sources for better facilitating of the appropriate management system. In this context, characterization studies are often performed on urban solid waste generated to enable suitable decision making for proper management of solid waste generated. The paper presents the characterization of urban solid wastes generated from the Tricity region of Chandigarh, Mohali and Panchkula in India. The present study characterizes the physical and chemical properties of the Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) generated in all the three study locations for different socio-economic groups. In general, the MSW generation from the Tricity of Chandigarh, Mohali and Panchkula account for approximately 680 tons per day (TPD) of solid waste (380 TPD in Chandigarh, 150 TPD in Mohali and 150 TPD in Panchkula). The characterization of the three cities indicates that MSW generated from all the three cities have high proportions of biodegradables [52% Chandigarh (CHD), 46.7% Mohali (MOH) and 42.6% Panchkula (PKL)] with inert fraction as (27% in CHD, 28.6% in MOH and 28.46% in PKL). The calorific value of the MSW generated varies from 1929 kcal/Kg for CHD, 1801 kcal/Kg for MOH and 1542 kcal/Kg for PKL with average moisture content of about 50% in CHD, 46% in MOH and 40% in PKL. Chemical characterization results of MSW reveal variation in elemental carbon with carbon fraction reported being 34.18% in CHD, 33.8% in MOH and 31.9% in PKL city. In the context of the characterization study, the paper also proposes suitable alternatives to the existing MSW management practices including composting, vermicomposting, setting up of a formal recycling unit and installation of bio-methanation plant along with the existing refuse derived fuel (RDF) plant as a comprehensive process for handling the municipal solid waste generated in the Tricity region.

Assessing the total theoretical, and financially viable, resource of biomethane for injection to a natural gas network in a region

The total theoretical biomethane resource of cattle slurry and grass silage in Ireland was estimated using the most up to date spatially explicit data available. The cattle slurry resource (9.6PJ) was predominantly found in southern and north-eastern regions while the grass silage resource (128.4PJ) was more concentrated in western regions. The total biomethane resource of cattle slurry and grass silage was equivalent to 6% and 76% of total natural gas consumption in Ireland in 2014/15, respectively. A sequential optimisation model was run to determine where to source cattle slurry and grass silage from, for 42 potential biomethane plant locations in Ireland. The concept was to maximise plant net present value (NPV) and develop locations in order of plant profitability. The impact of plant size, grass silage price, volatile solids ratio (VSR) of grass silage to cattle slurry, and incentive per unit energy of biomethane was assessed in 81 separate scenarios. The results indicated that total biomethane production from plants with a positive NPV ranged from 3.51PJ/a to 12.19PJ/a, considerably less than the total resource. The levelised cost of energy (LCOE) of plants was also calculated and ranged from ca. 50.2€/MWh to ca. 109€/MWh depending on the various plant parameters. LCOE decreased with increased plant size and ratio of grass silage to cattle slurry. The relationship between grass silage price and LCOE was assessed. In the median scenario (33€/twwt grass silage, VSR of 4, 75,000twwt/a plant size, 60€/MWh incentive) cattle slurry was sourced within 6.4km of the facility while grass silage was sourced within 10.5km of the facility. A high level assessment of the carbon dioxide intensity of biomethane from the median scenario was conducted and showed a potential greenhouse gas reduction of 74–79% when compared to natural gas.

Biomethanation plant assessment based on reliability impact on operational effectiveness

The biomethanation process is a promising eco-friendly solution for the treatment of organic biomass that can further lead to efficient bioenergy production. Thus, the analysis of operational reliability and maintainability is important when considering the availability assessment of operative plant conditions, and accordingly, an analysis of plant operational effectiveness impact (P-OEI) is necessary to identify the opportunities for improvement in asset management. A fundamental aspect of an industrial plant is to determine what the effect of each element is on the system. To clarify the importance of the primary equipment and improve the decision making related to asset management, a novel methodology proposal has been developed and applied to real data of a biomethanation plant located in Spain. This new methodology develops an analysis based on a reliability block diagram configuration that structures the process analysis by levels, i.e., ascending for availability analysis from the element to the system and descending for the P-OEI analysis from the system to the smallest element.The expected operational impact of EOI (i.e., the expected effect of an element constraint on the overall system) is also calculated. The P-OEI analysis conducted in this study reveals important results that can be used to evaluate the design and performance of an industrial plant.

Automation in Biomethanation Plant Using PLC and SCADA

Biomethanation is a feasible method to generate the biogas from organic waste like food waste, human waste, night soil waste, cow dung etc. The night soil waste and animal waste has bad odor in nature and it produces some infection to operators, so we implement the automation in biomethanation plant. This plant has four major processes like waste collection and mixing, digestion, gas collection and gas distribution. These above processes are controlled by manually, hence it produces some problems and errors, to overcome this problem, and we proposed an automatic control system for biomethanation plant. In this system the overall process are controlled by programmable logic controller and field instruments. And also these processes are controlled and monitored by SCADA using wonderware intouch software.

Technical and economic analysis of biomethane: A focus on the role of subsidies

Biomethane is a renewable energy useful to encourage the transition to a sustainable energy future. Incentive policies favour its development and consequently this paper evaluates the economic performance for use of biomethane fed into the grid, destined for cogeneration or sold as vehicle fuel. A mathematical model is proposed and the indicators used are Net Present Value and Discounted Payback Time. This paper aims to evaluate the financial feasibility of biomethane plants in function of the plant size (100m3/h, 250m3/h, 500m3/h, 1000m3/h) and the feedstock used (organic fraction of municipal solid waste and a mixture of 30% maize and 70% manure residues on a weight basis) for each final destination of biomethane. Furthermore, a sensitivity analysis on the critical variables is conducted and 356 case studies are overall assessed. The results of the paper demonstrate that the profitability of biomethane plants is verified in several scenarios and it is strongly linked to the subsidies. Biomethane used as vehicle fuel presents greater financial results favouring the increase of share of renewable energy in transport sector and environmental improvements are obtained.

Well-to-wheel analysis of bio-methane via gasification, in heavy duty engines within the transport sector of the European Union

Bio-methane from biomass gasification (bio-methane) is expected to play a major role as a biofuel in the heavy transport sector, since the production process has reached the technical maturity required for large-scale exploitation, and the fact that bio-methane can be distributed through the compressed natural gas (CNG) and liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply chains. Assuming that the burning of biomass is climate-neutral, we compared the well-to-wheel (WtW) emissions from the use of bio-methane in heavy duty engines with those from currently used fossil alternatives: CNG, LNG, and diesel. The well-to-tank (WtT) analysis of bio-methane is based on the case study of the new GoBiGas plant in Gothenburg (Sweden), which is the largest bio-methane plant in the world currently in operation. Finally, tank-to-wheel (TtW) section compares three different state-of-the-art heavy duty gas engines: a spark-ignited (SI) gas engine; a dual fuel (DF) engine; and a high-pressure direct injection (HPDI) engine.The WtT emissions for compressed bio-methane (bio-CNG) and liquefies bio-methane (bio-LNG) were estimated at 21.5 [gCO2e/MJbioCNG] and 26.2 [gCO2e/MJbioLNG]. As compared to diesel the WtW emissions from bio-methane were reduced by 60–67%, 43–47%, and 64% when used in SI, DF, and HPDI engines, respectively. HPDI and DF are the most efficient technologies for the utilization of biomass, reducing emissions by 39gCO2e and 33–36gCO2e per MJ of biomass, respectively, compared with the diesel case, whereas the SI engine gave an emissions saving of 29–31gCO2e.