Greenhouse Gas Emission Savings Research Articles

Implementing Tri-Brid Energy Systems for Renewable Integration in Southern Alberta, Canada

The steep decline in the price of wind and solar photovoltaics provides a possibility to decarbonize electricity deeply and affordably. This study uses the HOMER Pro energy modeling tool to model an optimized grid-connected renewable energy system for a community in southern Alberta, Canada. The study’s goal is to identify the best renewable energy technology combinations that can provide electricity at the lowest levelized cost of energy (LCOE) and has lower greenhouse gas emissions as compared to the electricity produced by traditional fossil fuel. Gleichen is a small town in southern Alberta that is close to numerous commercial wind and solar projects given the region’s high quality renewable resources. “Tri-brid” systems consisting of wind turbines, solar photovoltaics, and battery energy storage systems (BESS) are considered and compared based on electricity prices, net present cost, and greenhouse gas emissions savings. This tri-brid system is connected to the grid to sell excess generated electricity or buy electricity when there is less or no availability of solar and wind energy. The tri-brid energy system has an estimated LCOE of 0.0705 CAD/kWh, which is competitive with the price of electricity generated by natural gas and coal, which is 0.127 CAD/kWh.

PET and polyolefin plastics supply chains in Michigan: present and future systems analysis of environmental and socio-economic impacts

Many actions are underway at global, national, and local levels to increase plastics circularity. However, studies evaluating the environmental and socio-economic impacts of such a transition are lacking at regional levels in the United States. In this work, the existing polyethylene terephthalate and polyolefin plastics supply chains in Michigan were compared to a potential future (‘NextCycle’) scenario that looks at increasing Michigan’s overall recycling rate to 45%. Material flow analysis data was combined with environmental and socio-economic metrics to evaluate the sustainability of these supply chains for the modeled scenarios. Overall, the NextCycle scenario for these supply chains achieved a net 14% and 34% savings of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and energy impacts, when compared with their respective baseline values. Additionally, the NextCycle scenario showed a net gain in employment and wages, however, it showed a net loss of revenue generation outside of Michigan due to the avoided use of virgin resins in Michigan.

Energy and Greenhouse Gas Emission Savings Associated with Implementation of an Abbreviated Cardiac MRI Protocol.

Supplemental material is available for this article. See also the article by Lenkinski and Rofsky in this issue. See also the article by McKee et al in this issue.

The untapped health and climate potential of cycling in France: a national assessment from individual travel data

Promoting active modes of transportation such as cycling may generate important public health, economic, and climate mitigation benefits. We aim to assess the mortality and morbidity impacts of cycling in a country with relatively low levels of cycling, France, along with associated monetary benefits. We further assess the potential additional benefits of shifting a portion of short trips from cars to bikes, including projected greenhouse gas emissions savings. Using individual data from a nationally representative mobility survey, we described the French 2019 cycling levels by age and sex. We conducted a burden of disease analysis to assess the incidence of five chronic diseases (breast cancer, colon cancer, cardiovascular diseases, dementia, and type-2 diabetes) and the number of deaths prevented by cycling, based on national incidence and mortality data and dose-response relationships from meta-analyses. We assessed the corresponding direct medical cost savings and the intangible costs prevented based on the value of a statistical life year. Lastly, based on individual simulations, we assessed the likely additional benefits of shifting 25% of short (<5km) car trips to cycling. The French adult (20-89 years) population was estimated to cycle on average 1 min 17 sec pers-1 day-1 in 2019, with important heterogeneity across sex and age. This yielded benefits of 1,919 (uncertainty interval, UI: 1,101-2,736) premature deaths and 5,963 (UI: 3,178-8,749) chronic disease cases prevented, with males reaping nearly 75% of these benefits. Direct medical costs prevented were estimated at €191 million (UI: 98-285) annually, while the corresponding intangible costs were nearly 25 times higher (€4.8 billion, UI: 3.0-6.5). We estimated that on average, €1.02 (UI: 0.59-1.62) of intangible costs were prevented for every km cycled. Shifting 25% of short car trips to cycling would yield approximatively a 2-fold increase in deaths prevented, while also generating important CO2 emissions reductions (0.257 MtCO2e, UI: 0.231-0.288). In a country with a low- to moderate-cycling culture, cycling already generates important public health and health-related economic benefits. Further development of active transportation would increase these benefits while also contributing to climate change mitigation targets. This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

City-scale heating and cooling with aquifer thermal energy storage (ATES)

Sustainable and climate-friendly space heating and cooling is of great importance for the energy transition. Compared to conventional energy sources, Aquifer Thermal Energy Storage (ATES) systems can significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions from space heating and cooling. Hence, the objective of this study is to quantify the technical potential of shallow low-temperature ATES systems in terms of reclaimable energy in the city of Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany. Based on 3D heat transport modeling, heating and cooling power densities are determined for different ATES configurations located in an unconsolidated gravel aquifer of varying hydrogeological subsurface characteristics. High groundwater flow velocities of up to 13 m d−1 cause high storage energy loss and thus limit power densities to a maximum of 3.2 W m−2. Nevertheless, comparison of these power densities with the existing thermal energy demands shows that ATES systems can achieve substantial heating and cooling supply rates. This is especially true for the cooling demand, for which a full supply by ATES is determined for 92% of all residential buildings in the study area. For ATES heating alone, potential greenhouse gas emission savings of up to about 70,000 tCO2eq a−1 are calculated, which equals about 40% of the current greenhouse gas emissions caused by space and water heating in the study areas’ residential building stock. The modeling approach proposed in this study can also be applied in other regions with similar hydrogeological conditions to obtain estimations of local ATES supply rates and support city-scale energy planning.

Unlocking the potential of the bioeconomy for climate change reduction: The optimal use of lignocellulosic biomass in Germany

AbstractThe concept of a circular bioeconomy has become a new economic leitmotif for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Its central narrative rests on the idea of replacing fossil resources with biobased ones for a broad spectrum of products including, for example, heat, electricity, fuels, plastics, or chemicals. Yet, the amount of available bio‐resources is limited, rendering some technologies successful while leaving behind others. Lignocellulosic biomass (LBM) is a key resource already used on a large scale for heating purposes or electricity production and increasingly for the production of chemicals and biofuels. Because market mechanisms do not necessarily drive a cost‐optimal use with respect to their GHG‐reduction potential, a new bi‐objective linear optimization model under long‐term scenarios was developed for Germany accounting for competition with non‐biobased technologies. In the biofuels and biochemicals sectors, multi‐output processes that address industrial symbiosis and fossil references are used to compute profits and GHG emission savings of biobased products. However, in the absence of a reference for heat, a detailed representation of the heat sector is used in which heat demand for 19 subsectors is met, thus deriving costs and emission savings endogenously. When explicitly accounting for GHG emission reduction targets, biomass is optimally used in high‐temperature industries whereas heat pumps dominate in building heat. Because of the optimal use of biomass in industrial usage, subsidies for biomass heating are found to be inefficient in the building sector. Catalytic hydropyrolysis to produce biogasoline and biodiesel using LBM dominates the production of biofuels while biochemicals—strongly depending on oil price developments—will become competitive on a large scale after 2030.

Techno-economic optimization of hybrid-electric power plants onboard cruise ships

This work aims at assessing energy, environmental and economic performances of hybrid-electric plants installed onboard large-size cruise vessels fuelled by Liquefied Natural Gas. Specifically, hybrid-electric power plants coupling combined gas electric and steam plants, reciprocating engines and lithium-ion battery pack are considered. By adopting cogeneration efficiency, carbon dioxide emissions, nitrogen oxide emissions and costs as objective functions, optimal performances were assessed by a Mixed Integer Linear Programming code, following a two-step procedure. First, the MILP code has been applied considering 8-days long, phase-mean operating profiles to identify an optimal design of the engine room. Second, power plant performances have been investigated by applying MILP code to hourly demand profiles, in order to provide more detailed insight on working schedule. Overall, as main outcome of the phase-mean analysis, the potential of combined gas electric and steam plants and lithium-ion batteries in promoting a more efficient energy utilization, reduced environmental impact and enhanced cost savings is proved. Specifically, combined gas electric and steam plant was shown to optimize objective functions during navigation and maneuvering, whereas batteries improved energy and environmental performances in the most demanding ship operating conditions. Furthermore, optimal sizing of lithium-ion battery pack was determined at 40 MWh, despite its economic competitiveness resulted to deeply rely on carbon tax. On the other hand, the hourly analysis showed that controlling the combined gas electric and steam plant and batteries according to a mixed spinning reserve-peak shaving strategy optimizes the performance of power plant even in port conditions, with almost no role played by reciprocating engines. In detail, in comparison to a reference non-hybrid electric power plant, batteries are shown to improve cogeneration efficiency and greenhouse gas emission savings by nearly 2%, whereas nitrogen oxide emissions and costs were reduced by 12% and 2%, respectively.

Decarbonization Technology in Road Infrastructure Projects

This study aims to determine the appropriate decarbonization technologies to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in road infrastructure projects. Decarbonization is a process that seeks to reduce or eliminate CO2 emissions that contribute to climate change and that comes from the energy sources consumed by the transport sector. With statistical information from different studies, the most appropriate technologies were identified to control the triangle of effectiveness, productivity, and profitability derived from the costs, time, and quality of the projects associated with decarbonization technologies. The study is documentary and bibliographic, with the deductive method, quantitative approach, applied orientation, and descriptive, correlational, and explanatory types. The design is non-experimental, cross-sectional, and retrospective. The energy conversion efficiency of all technologies is identified in three domains: with fossil fuels from compressed natural gas, with natural gas, and with electricity by hydrogen electrolysis. GHG (Greenhouse Gas) emissions savings using BIM (Building Information Modeling) can reach up to 14% and 30% of emissions and 47% and 65% when the scope of maintenance and rehabilitation is restricted, and pavement construction is excluded.

Estimation of energy demand and greenhouse gas emission reduction effect of cross-laminated timber (CLT) hybrid wall using life cycle assessment for urban residential planning

The building and construction sector accounted for 36% of final energy use and 37% of energy and process-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in 2020. According to a recent study, if the global population grows to 9.3 billion by 2050, new infrastructure development will cause approximately 350 Gt of CO2 emissions, corresponding to 35–60% of the remaining carbon budget available up to 2050 if the average temperature increase is to be limited to 2 °C. Material substitution is one way to reduce embodied energy and CO2 emissions. Cross-laminated timber (CLT), a bio-based material, can be an alternative to concrete and steel, which are the most energy- and carbon-intensive materials. However, there is a limit to the immediate application of CLT to the entire building. This study confirmed greenhouse gas (GHG) emission and energy consumption reductions when CLT was applied to the exterior walls of 52 apartment building types. Substituting CLT for concrete in the exterior walls resulted in a 44.6% savings in GHG emissions and 49.3% in energy demand. GHG emissions per floor were reduced by −16,906 kg CO2-eq, while energy consumption per floor was reduced by −256,896 MJ. If CLT is used in 30% of the exterior walls of the 800,000 houses planned to be constructed in Seoul by 2030, the energy savings and GHG reduction effect are expected to be −11,495 TJ and −0.86 Mt CO2-eq, respectively.

Energy self-sufficiency and sustainability in a defined neighbourhood: Bio-methanation to green gas can outperform green hydrogen

In Europe, green hydrogen and biogas/green gas are considered important renewable energy carriers, besides renewable electricity and heat. Still, incentives proceed slowly, and the feasibility of local green gas is questioned. A supply chain of decentralised green hydrogen production from locally generated electricity (PV or wind) and decentralised green gas production from locally collected biomass and biological power-to-methane technology was analysed and compared to a green hydrogen scenario. We developed a novel method for assessing local options. Meeting the heating demand of households was constrained by the current EU law (RED II) to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 80% relative to fossil (natural) gas. Levelised cost of energy (LCOE) analyses at 80% GHG emission savings indicate that locally produced green gas (LCOE = 24.0 €ct kWh−1) is more attractive for individual citizens than locally produced green hydrogen (LCOE = 43.5 €ct kWh−1). In case higher GHG emission savings are desired, both LCOEs go up. Data indicate an apparent mismatch between heat demand in winter and PV electricity generation in summer. Besides, at the current state of technology, local onshore wind turbines have less GHG emissions than PV panels. Wind turbines may therefore have advantages over PV fields despite the various concerns in society. Our study confirms that biomass availability in a dedicated region is a challenge.

Carbon Life Cycle Assessment and Costing of Building Integrated Photovoltaic Systems for Deep Low-Carbon Renovation

Building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) systems can achieve high yields through high percentages of building envelope surface coverage associated with material savings by substituting conventional building envelope components and avoiding land-use change to install open-land PV installations. This article discusses the life cycle assessment (LCA) and the life cycle costing (LCC) of BIPV systems in timber-hybrid building extensions and envelope renovation systems of three exemplary buildings in the Republic of Korea: apartment, mixed-use commercial/industrial, and low-rise multi-unit residential. The BIPV system’s electricity production was quantified with simulation tools. Minimum and average carbon LCAs were calculated using a global product inventory database for 50 years. Greenhouse gas (GHG) emission savings by substituting conventional energy supplies were calculated based on the associated primary energy demands. LCC calculations were based on international datasets for BIPV LCC for 25 and 50 years. As a result, the BIPV system-associated GHG emissions can be decreased by up to 30% with a payback time of 12 (apartment) to 41 (mixed-use building) years for buildings with full PV coverage. The positive cumulative net present value (NPV) for both LCC scenarios encourages economic investments in building renovations with BIPV systems.

Analysis of Specific Greenhouse Gas Emissions Savings from Biogas Production Based on Agricultural Residues and Industrial By-Products

The aim of this study was to analyse specific greenhouse gas emissions savings for a variety of agricultural residues, industrial by-products, and municipal biowaste. One of the most viable alternatives to fossil fuels is bioenergy, particularly biogas produced by the anaerobic digestion of renewable feedstocks. The revised Renewable Energy Directive (D 2018/2001) recognizes that biogas production from agricultural residues, livestock production, and industrial by-products is an acknowledged greenhouse gas mitigation technology in cases where their use results in a certain level of specific greenhouse gas savings. This study delivered values for the maximum transport distance of agricultural residues and industrial by-products to achieve the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions-saving requirement defined by Directive 2018/2001. It analysed the greenhouse gas emissions reduction for numerous feedstocks for which Directive 2018/2001 has not defined the default and typical values but which could be used as sustainable substitutes for currently dominantly used maize silage in biogas production. The results obtained in this work define the maximum transport and distribution distance for which biogas produced from considered feedstocks achieved required specific greenhouse gas emissions savings (80%), compared with fossil fuel comparator. The obtained results can be used as the constraints in the optimisation of the biomass supply chains for the feedstocks considered in this work.

Carbon footprint of low-energy buildings in the United Kingdom: Effects of mitigating technological pathways and decarbonization strategies

There is a limited comprehensive analysis of the effectiveness of adopted carbon mitigation strategies for buildings over their life cycle, that are concerned with temporal perspectives of emissions. Accordingly, this paper explores a life cycle assessment (LCA) to address the concerns regarding mitigating the carbon footprint of a UK timber-frame low-energy dwelling. In particular, it aims to investigate the potential greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction in terms of three different heating and ventilation options, and to analyze the influence of decarbonization of electricity production as well as the technological progress of the waste treatment of timber on the building's environmental performance. Thus, the whole life‑carbon of the building case studies was evaluated for a total of eight investigated prospective scenarios, and they were compared to the LCA results of the baseline scenario, where the existing technology and context remained constant over time. Results show that using a compact heat pump would lead to a significant whole life-cycle emission reduction of the dwelling, by 19 %; while GHG emission savings can be reinforced if the assessed systems are employed simultaneously with grid decarbonization, exhibiting a 25 %–60 % reduction compared to the baseline scenario. Moreover, technological changes in the waste treatments of timber products could substantially reduce the buildings' embodied emissions, representing 3 %–23 %. From these emission-saving measures, the contribution of material efficiency strategies to achieve more embodied carbon savings should be highlighted in future construction practices.

Greenhouse gas emissions, land use and employment in a future global bioplastics economy

Plastics are among the most versatile materials in the world but pose a threat to the environment due to pollution of land, water, and air. Research has focused on developing natural substitutes for fossil-derived, non-degradable plastics, principally by replacing oil-based feedstocks with renewable feedstocks and by producing biodegradable alternatives, preferably from such feedstocks. With a resultant significant growth in production capacity for biobased plastics, there is a need to better understand the global implications of such a transition. Here we conduct a global multi-regional input-output analysis of plastic supply chains, with specific consideration of technological requirements of conventional and biobased plastic resources, monomers, polymers and final plastic products. We analyse a set of scenarios with varying levels of replacement of conventional processes with biobased processes. Under a full replacement scenario, we find greenhouse gas emission savings of 369 Mt (–1% of global emissions), an increase in land use of 65 Mha (+1.2% of global land use), and the generation of an additional 18 million jobs (+0.6% of global employment). Whilst principally these results show positive emission and employment outcomes, policy will be needed to further guide the transition in order to increase uptake, and to guard against potential negative outcomes related to increased land requirements.

Blatticomposting of Food Waste, Production Estimates, Chemical Composition and CO2 Emissions Savings: A Case Study

Half of the organic waste generated by mankind is compostable. Many of the traditional methods of food waste treatment generate pernicious effects on ecosystems, such as leachates, greenhouse gases, pathogenic microorganisms or odors. Three cockroach species that are widespread as live food for feeding exotic animals (mainly reptiles) due to their high growth rates, waste consumption, production and quality of blatticompost: the Madagascar hissing cockroach (Aeluropoda insignis Butler), the Guyana spotted cockroach (Blaptica dubia Serville) and the ivory cockroach (Eublaberus sp.) has been evaluated. Neither the weight–length ratios (W–L) nor the body condition index (Krel) of the three species studied were statistically different between the control and organic waste treatment groups. Average intakes per animal per day were 0.93 g in Aeluropoda, 2.22 g in Blaptica and 2.58 g in Eublaberus. Blatticompost production rates were 0.11, 0.75 and 0.52 g / animal*day, respectively. Taking into account the differences in size and density of individuals, this implies an average waste consumption of 1015.9 g/m2*day, of which 26.7% would be transformed into blatticompost considering the three species together. This is equivalent to 304.8 mt/ha*month of food waste recycled, a blatticompost production of 81.4 mt/ha*month and an estimated greenhouse gas emission savings of 817.2 mt/ha*month. Results indicate that any of the three species studied would be a viable alternative, although the ivory cockroach (Eublaberus sp.) presents ideal characteristics. The massive use of this species in the large-scale treatment of organic waste is proposed. Given the enormous advantages of this treatment and the zero environmental costs (absence of invasive character) could be necessary to adapt the legislation of the European Community to include blatticomposting as a suitable waste treatment as it is done in other parts of the world.Graphical

Development of Solar PV Systems for Mini-Grid Applications in Tanzania

Access to electricity offers great benefits to development through the provision of reliable and efficient energy sources in the country. Majority of the population living in the remote and rural areas of developing countries mostly sub-Saharan Africa are not supplied with electricity. Although the governments through their electricity companies put their effort to extends the grid distribution networks to remote and rural areas still the coverage were not sufficiently enough due to growing demands for safe and reliable electricity. However, solar as a source of energy remains the least utilized energy source in many countries including Tanzania. Solar Photovoltaic (PV) systems mini-grids have shown their potential in rural electrification projects in many countries mostly sub-Saharan Africa. A solar PV system mini-grid is a PV plant with a localized distribution network to a unit village, or a cluster of villages, providing alternating current (AC). Basically, it consists of solar PV modules of a certain capacity, charger controller, inverters for converting the DC power to AC power, housing for the battery bank and plant control systems. In areas where there is no grid connection or where diesel generation is the main power source, PV plants are able to generate electricity efficiently and relatively cheaply. This paper aims at giving out the overview of solar PV mini-grid applications in Tanzania basically, in terms of technical design and economic analysis of the selected mini-grid system at Juma Island village located in Sengerema District in Mwanza Region. The Juma Island settlements has the electricity demands estimated about 25 kWh per day. At the prevailing tariff conditions in the country, this project can be considered as financially viable with feed-in tariff scheme or other incentives such as grants/capital subsidies when applied. However, the other non-financial benefits like the greenhouse gas emissions savings can, in the long run, help mitigate the adverse effects of the climate change problem plaguing the entire earth.

BIM can help decarbonize the construction sector: Primary life cycle evidence from pavement management systems

Transforming the construction sector is key to reaching net-zero, and many stakeholders expect its decarbonization through digitalization, but no quantified evidence has been brought to date. This article proposes the first environmental quantification of the impact of Building Information Modeling (BIM) in the construction sector. Specifically, the direct and indirect greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions generated by a monofunctional BIM to plan road maintenance – a Pavement Management System (PMS) - are evaluated using field data from France. The related carbon footprints are calculated following a life cycle approach, using different sources of data – including ecoinvent v3.6 – and the IPCC 2013 GWP 100a characterization factors. Three design-build-maintain pavement alternatives are compared: scenario 1 relates to a massive design and surface maintenance, scenario 2 to a progressive design and pre-planned structural maintenance, and scenario 3 to a progressive design and tailored structural maintenance supported by the PMS. First, results show the negligible direct emissions due to the PMS existence – 0.02% of the life cycle emissions of scenario 3's pavement, e.g. 0.52 t CO2eq for 10 km and 30 years. Second, the base case and two complementary sensitivity analyses show that the use of a PMS is climate-positive over the life cycle when pavement subgrade bearing capacity improves over time, neutral for the climate otherwise. The GHG emissions savings using BIM can reach up to 14 and 30% of the life cycle emissions respectively compared to scenario 2 and 1, and resp. 47 and 65% when restraining the scope to maintenance and rehabilitation and excluding original pavement construction. Third, the neutral effect of BIM in case of a deterioration of the bearing capacity of the subgrade may be explained by design practices and safety margins, that could in fact be enhanced using BIM. Fourth, the decarbonization potential of a multifunctional BIM is discussed, and research perspectives are presented.

Towards optimised decisions for resource and carbon-efficient structural design

ABSTRACT Engineering structures consume a significant fraction of resources and contribute to greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. A conducted literature review shows that most existing approaches to improve the environmental performance of structures concern the adoption of decisions during the conceptual design stage (e.g. on the choice of material), often in connection with life cycle assessment. However, approaches for addressing environmental objectives in practice are often hampered by economic interests pursuing short-term profit. Moreover, such approaches are rather descriptive and lack criteria for assessing the acceptability of specific solutions. Sustainable development of our built environment requires hence a shift of paradigm on how engineering structures are designed. In this paper it is claimed that this should be approached at the strategical level of structural design codes, which contain the rules that support everyday engineering decisions in regard to structural safety and functionality. The paper discusses the reasons why these rules as conceived do not foster an optimal use of materials and explores possibilities for savings of resources and greenhouse gas emissions through modifications of these rules. The potential of risk-informed decision approaches in this context is highlighted and illustrated by a case study – the design of steel beams in building structures.

A data-based business concept to support product creation in reducing greenhouse gas emissions

The anthropogenic climate change and the resulting global warming cause a multitude of problems for humans and the environment. For this reason, politicians have set ambitious climate targets with the adoption of the Paris Climate Agreement and the implementation of the European Green Deal. However, especially in the industrial sector, the savings of climate-damaging greenhouse gas emissions have so far fallen short of the politically set targets. A significant lever to reduce emissions in production is offered when optimal decisions are already made in the product creation process. One approach is shifting the focus from the product itself to the provision of its service, so different options for geometry, material, manufacturing process and machines are enabled. By forecasting a carbon footprint for each variation of the mentioned options, the greenhouse gas optimal configuration can be identified. Automating this process requires a trustful data and service exchange framework with interfaces, where data exchanges (e.g. raw material properties) and service provisions (e.g. prognosis algorithm for energy consumption) are simplified. Lastly, an inherent changeover and investments must be justifiable in terms of measurable benefits and return on investment for participating companies.This paper aims to propose a data-driven business model for the greenhouse gas emission reduction in product creation. It addresses the data and revenue streams for the participating stakeholders by a use case from the field of plastic injection molding within the Gaia-X lighthouse project EuProGigant. In this context, the underlying business model architecture is derived. Finally, possible economic potentials and chances for saving greenhouse gas emissions are discussed. Likewise, possible obstacles that could prevent economic operation in industrial practice are also addressed.

Decarbonising distilled spirits: An assessment of the potential associated with anaerobic digestion of by-products at nine operational distilleries

This work aims to assess the potential biogas resource of by-products from the production of distilled spirits at 9 operational distilleries in 7 countries. An additional objective was the calculation of the energy resource and Scope 1 greenhouse gas (GHG) emission savings from the use of 21 by-products from the distilleries as a feedstock for anaerobic digestion (AD). To present a holistic perspective on the integration of AD with distilleries, an overview of additional criteria to be considered was provided. The biochemical methane potential (BMP) of the by-products associated with a selection of distilled spirits was experimentally determined. The BMP ranged from 161 L methane per kg volatile solid (LCH4/kgVS) to 589 LCH4/kgVS with an average value of 332 LCH4/kgVS. Biogas could reduce distillery fossil fuel demand by 49% when produced from un-processed by-products, by 66% when produced from a mixture of separated by-products, by 16% when produced from concentrated by-products and by 13% when produced from liquid by-products. The average Scope 1 GHG emission saving when using un-processed by-products was 52%, a mix of separated by-products allowed for a reduction of 66%, liquid by-products achieved an average reduction of 14%, and the use of concentrated by-products reduced GHG emissions by 17% on average. When evaluating which distilleries are “of most interest” for the integration of AD, other criteria to be considered include: by-product properties, the size of the AD facility required, the quantity of digestate produced, and the location of the distilleries in terms of both land availability to construct the AD facility and the proximity to land on which to spread digestate.