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Production and Utilization of Biogas 2020
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Production and Utilization of Biogas 2020

A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "A4: Bio-Energy".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 October 2020) | Viewed by 14899

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Wojciech Budzianowski

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Wojciech Budzianowski Consulting Services, Poleska 11/37, 51-354 Wrocław, Poland
Interests: sustainable business development; innovation management; renewable energy
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Biogas, although it is a mature renewable energy technology, still requires financial incentivization of commercial plants or end uses. Shortages of locally-available, very cheap digestible feedstocks restrain biogas productivity, so that biogas plants with a capacity greater than 1 MW are difficult to construct and operate in truly competitive markets. Research into innovations that could improve economic viability and resource flexibility of biogas technology is therefore needed. Potential improvements must be sought in the whole value chain of biogas: Cheaper feedstock production and collection including wastes, enhanced fermentation techniques, novel products that can be derived from feedstock processing or biogas, new end uses, integration with other technologies, market organization, etc. This Special Issue aims at encouraging researchers to address challenges associated with biogas production and utilization. It seeks research reports and innovative solutions that could contribute to the further development of biogas technology. In addition, the submission of review papers that systematically evaluate advances in biogass production and utilizaton with an emphasis on technological excellence and realistic commercial potential are also invited.

Dr. Wojciech Budzianowski
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Energies is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • biogas
  • production
  • utilization
  • innovation
  • sustainability

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

26 pages, 6763 KiB  
Article
Techno-Economic Analysis of ZnO Nanoparticles Pretreatments for Biogas Production from Barley Straw
by Mohamed A. Hassaan, Antonio Pantaleo, Francesco Santoro, Marwa R. Elkatory, Giuseppe De Mastro, Amany El Sikaily, Safaa Ragab and Ahmed El Nemr
Energies 2020, 13(19), 5001; https://doi.org/10.3390/en13195001 - 23 Sep 2020
Cited by 24 | Viewed by 2676
Abstract
The aim of this study was to analyze the effect of ZnO nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) on the biogas production from mechanically treated barley straw and to perform a techno-economic analysis based on the costs assessment and on the results of biogas production. The [...] Read more.
The aim of this study was to analyze the effect of ZnO nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) on the biogas production from mechanically treated barley straw and to perform a techno-economic analysis based on the costs assessment and on the results of biogas production. The structural changes of mechanically pretreated barley straw were observed using FTIR, XRD, TGA, and SEM. Additionally, both green ZnO NPs prepared from red alga (Antithamnion plumula) extract and chemically prepared ZnO NPs were characterized by FTIR, XRD, SEM, and TEM, surface area, and EDX. The results revealed that the biogas production was slightly improved by 14.9 and 13.2% when the barley straw of 0.4 mm was mechanically pretreated with 10 mg/L of both green and chemical ZnO NPs and produced 390.5 mL biogas/g VS and 385 mL biogas/g VS, respectively. On the other hand, the higher concentrations of ZnO NPs equal to 20 mg/L had an inhibitory effect on biogas production and decreased the biogas yield to 173 mL biogas/g VS, which was less than the half of previous values. It was also clear that the mechanically treated barley straw of 0.4 mm size presented a higher biogas yield of about 340 mL/g VS, in comparison to 279 mL biogas/g VS of untreated biomass. The kinetic study showed that the first order, modified Gompertz and logistic function models had the best fit with the experimental data. The results showed that the nanoparticles (NPs) of the mechanically treated barely straw are a suitable source of biomass for biogas production, and its yields are higher than the untreated barley straw. The results of the cost-benefit analysis showed that the average levelized cost of energy (LCOE), adopting the best treatments (0.4 mm + 10 mg/L ZnO), is 0.21 €/kWh, which is not competitive with the other renewable energy systems in the Egyptian energy market. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Production and Utilization of Biogas 2020)
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13 pages, 1821 KiB  
Article
Households’ Willingness to Pay for Substituting Natural Gas with Renewable Methane: A Contingent Valuation Experiment in South Korea
by Sung-Min Kim, Ju-Hee Kim and Seung-Hoon Yoo
Energies 2020, 13(12), 3082; https://doi.org/10.3390/en13123082 - 15 Jun 2020
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2438
Abstract
South Korea is planning to substitute some residential natural gas (NG), a fossil fuel that relies on imports, with renewable methane (RM) from bio-gas, a renewable energy source. Thus, information about households’ willingness to pay (WTP) for implementing the plan is widely needed. [...] Read more.
South Korea is planning to substitute some residential natural gas (NG), a fossil fuel that relies on imports, with renewable methane (RM) from bio-gas, a renewable energy source. Thus, information about households’ willingness to pay (WTP) for implementing the plan is widely needed. This article, therefore, examines the WTP using an economic approach of contingent valuation (CV). More specifically, 1000 households were asked about the additional WTP for RM over NG through in-person face-to-face surveys across the country, adopting a dichotomous choice question format, during August 2018. As a few interviewees responded zero WTP for various reasons, a spike model that could reflect zero WTP observations was utilized. The household additional WTP for RM over NG was estimated, with statistical significance, as 191.46 Korean won (USD 0.17) per m3 and worth 31.9% of the average price of residential NG. This value means a price premium for RM compared to NG. In other words, this study found that South Korean consumers value residential RM about 1.32 times as much as residential NG. These results from the CV experiment could be a useful reference in establishing and implementing RM-related policies. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Production and Utilization of Biogas 2020)
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38 pages, 2463 KiB  
Article
Regulated Emissions of Biogas Engines—On Site Experimental Measurements and Damage Assessment on Human Health
by Alarico Macor and Alberto Benato
Energies 2020, 13(5), 1044; https://doi.org/10.3390/en13051044 - 26 Feb 2020
Cited by 17 | Viewed by 2832
Abstract
Despite biogas renewability, it is mandatory to experimentally assess its combustion products in order to measure their pollutants content. To this purpose, the Authors selected six in-operation biogas plants fed by different substrates and perform an on-site experimental campaign for measuring both biogas [...] Read more.
Despite biogas renewability, it is mandatory to experimentally assess its combustion products in order to measure their pollutants content. To this purpose, the Authors selected six in-operation biogas plants fed by different substrates and perform an on-site experimental campaign for measuring both biogas and engines exhausts composition. Firstly, biogas measured compositions are compared among them and with data available in literature. Then, biogas engines’ exhaust compositions are compared among them, with data available in literature and with measurements obtained from an engine characterised by the same design power but fuelled with natural gas. Finally, the Health Impact Assessment analysis is used to estimate the damage on human health caused by both biogas and natural gas engines emissions. Results show that biogas causes a damage on human health three times higher than the natural gas one. But, this approach does not consider biogas renewability. So, to include this important aspect, also an analysis which considers Global Warming categories is carried out. Results highlight that natural gas is twice harmful than biogas. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Production and Utilization of Biogas 2020)
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15 pages, 3124 KiB  
Article
Biogas from Anaerobic Digestion: Power Generation or Biomethane Production?
by Gianluca Caposciutti, Andrea Baccioli, Lorenzo Ferrari and Umberto Desideri
Energies 2020, 13(3), 743; https://doi.org/10.3390/en13030743 - 08 Feb 2020
Cited by 43 | Viewed by 6139
Abstract
Biogas is a fuel obtained from organic waste fermentation and can be an interesting solution for producing electric energy, heat and fuel. Recently, many European countries have incentivized the production of biomethane to be injected into natural gas grids or compressed and used [...] Read more.
Biogas is a fuel obtained from organic waste fermentation and can be an interesting solution for producing electric energy, heat and fuel. Recently, many European countries have incentivized the production of biomethane to be injected into natural gas grids or compressed and used as biofuel in vehicles. The introduction of an upgrading unit into an existing anaerobic digestion plant to convert biogas to biomethane may have a strong impact on the overall energy balance of the systems. The amount of biomethane produced may be optimized from several points of view (i.e., energy, environmental and economic). In this paper, the mass and energy fluxes of an anaerobic digestion plant were analyzed as a function of the biogas percentage sent to the upgrading system and the amount of biomethane produced. A numerical model of an anaerobic digestion plant was developed by considering an existing case study. The mass and energy balance of the digesters, cogeneration unit, upgrading system and auxiliary boiler were estimated when the amount of produced biomethane was varied. An internal combustion engine was adopted as the cogeneration unit and a CO2 absorption system was assumed for biogas upgrading. Results demonstrated that the energy balance of the plant is strictly dependent on the biomethane production and that an excess of biomethane production makes the plant totally dependent on external energy sources. As for the environmental impact, an optimal level of biomethane production exists that minimizes the emissions of equivalent CO2. However, high biomethane subsides can encourage plant managers to increase biomethane production and thus reduce CO2 savings. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Production and Utilization of Biogas 2020)
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