Thermodynamic, economic and environmental assessment of energy systems including the use of gas from manure fermentation in the context of the Spanish potential

Anna Skorek-Osikowska, Mario Martin-Gamboa, Diego Iribarren, Diego García-Gusano, Javier Dufour

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

12 Citations (Scopus)
3 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

One of the prospective technologies that can be used for energy generation in distributed systems is based on biogas production, usually involving fermentation of various types of biomass and waste. This article aims to bring novelty on the analysis of this type of systems, joining together thermodynamic, economic and environmental aspects for a cross-cutting evaluation of the proposed solutions. The analysis is made for Spain, for which such a solution is very promising due to availability of the feedstock. A detailed simulation model of the proposed system in two different cases was built in Aspen Plus software and Visual Basic for Applications. Case 1 involves production of biogas in manure fermentation process, its upgrading (cleaning and removal of CO2 from the gas) and injection to the grid. Case 2 assumes combustion of the biogas in gas engine to produce electricity and heat that can be used locally and/or sold to the grid. Thermodynamic assessment of these two cases was made to determine the most important parameters and evaluation indices. The results served as input values for the economic analysis and environmental evaluation through Life Cycle Assessment of the energy systems. The results show that the analysed technologies have potential to produce high-value products based on low-quality biomass. Economic evaluation determined the break-even price of biomethane (Case 1) and electricity (Case 2), which for the nominal assumptions reach the values of 16.77 €/GJ and 28.92 €/GJ, respectively. In terms of environmental assessment the system with the use of biogas in gas engine presents around three times better environmental profile than Case 1 in the two categories evaluated, i.e., carbon and energy footprint.
Original languageEnglish
Article number117452
Pages (from-to)117452
Number of pages1
JournalEnergy
Volume200
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jun 2020

Keywords

  • Biogas
  • Thermodynamic analysis
  • Economic analysis
  • Life cycle assessment
  • Manure fermentation
  • Biogas upgrading

Project and Funding Information

  • Project ID
  • info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/EC/H2020/799439/EU/SUStainability assessment of ADvanced Energy Systems: towards new methodological approaches/SUSADES
  • Funding Info
  • This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 799439. Dr. Martín-Gamboa states that thanks are due to FCT/MCTES for the financial support to CESAM (UID/AMB/50017/2019), through national funds.

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