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Life Cycle Environmental Impacts of Electricity from Biogas Produced by Anaerobic Digestion

The aim of this study was to evaluate life cycle environmental impacts associated with the generation of electricity from biogas produced by the anaerobic digestion (AD) of agricultural products and waste. Five real plants in Italy were considered, using maize silage, slurry, and tomato waste as fee...

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Autores principales: Fusi, Alessandra, Bacenetti, Jacopo, Fiala, Marco, Azapagic, Adisa
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4786543/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27014689
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fbioe.2016.00026
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author Fusi, Alessandra
Bacenetti, Jacopo
Fiala, Marco
Azapagic, Adisa
author_facet Fusi, Alessandra
Bacenetti, Jacopo
Fiala, Marco
Azapagic, Adisa
author_sort Fusi, Alessandra
collection PubMed
description The aim of this study was to evaluate life cycle environmental impacts associated with the generation of electricity from biogas produced by the anaerobic digestion (AD) of agricultural products and waste. Five real plants in Italy were considered, using maize silage, slurry, and tomato waste as feedstocks and cogenerating electricity and heat; the latter is not utilized. The results suggest that maize silage and the operation of anaerobic digesters, including open storage of digestate, are the main contributors to the impacts of biogas electricity. The system that uses animal slurry is the best option, except for the marine and terrestrial ecotoxicity. The results also suggest that it is environmentally better to have smaller plants using slurry and waste rather than bigger installations, which require maize silage to operate efficiently. Electricity from biogas is environmentally more sustainable than grid electricity for seven out of 11 impacts considered. However, in comparison with natural gas, biogas electricity is worse for seven out of 11 impacts. It also has mostly higher impacts than other renewables, with a few exceptions, notably solar photovoltaics. Thus, for the AD systems and mesophilic operating conditions considered in this study, biogas electricity can help reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions relative to a fossil-intensive electricity mix; however, some other impacts increase. If mitigation of climate change is the main aim, other renewables have a greater potential to reduce GHG emissions. If, in addition to this, other impacts are considered, then hydro, wind, and geothermal power are better alternatives to biogas electricity. However, utilization of heat would improve significantly its environmental sustainability, particularly global warming potential, summer smog, and the depletion of abiotic resources and the ozone layer. Further improvements can be achieved by banning open digestate storage to prevent methane emissions and regulating digestate spreading onto land to minimize emissions of ammonia and related environmental impacts.
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spelling pubmed-47865432016-03-24 Life Cycle Environmental Impacts of Electricity from Biogas Produced by Anaerobic Digestion Fusi, Alessandra Bacenetti, Jacopo Fiala, Marco Azapagic, Adisa Front Bioeng Biotechnol Bioengineering and Biotechnology The aim of this study was to evaluate life cycle environmental impacts associated with the generation of electricity from biogas produced by the anaerobic digestion (AD) of agricultural products and waste. Five real plants in Italy were considered, using maize silage, slurry, and tomato waste as feedstocks and cogenerating electricity and heat; the latter is not utilized. The results suggest that maize silage and the operation of anaerobic digesters, including open storage of digestate, are the main contributors to the impacts of biogas electricity. The system that uses animal slurry is the best option, except for the marine and terrestrial ecotoxicity. The results also suggest that it is environmentally better to have smaller plants using slurry and waste rather than bigger installations, which require maize silage to operate efficiently. Electricity from biogas is environmentally more sustainable than grid electricity for seven out of 11 impacts considered. However, in comparison with natural gas, biogas electricity is worse for seven out of 11 impacts. It also has mostly higher impacts than other renewables, with a few exceptions, notably solar photovoltaics. Thus, for the AD systems and mesophilic operating conditions considered in this study, biogas electricity can help reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions relative to a fossil-intensive electricity mix; however, some other impacts increase. If mitigation of climate change is the main aim, other renewables have a greater potential to reduce GHG emissions. If, in addition to this, other impacts are considered, then hydro, wind, and geothermal power are better alternatives to biogas electricity. However, utilization of heat would improve significantly its environmental sustainability, particularly global warming potential, summer smog, and the depletion of abiotic resources and the ozone layer. Further improvements can be achieved by banning open digestate storage to prevent methane emissions and regulating digestate spreading onto land to minimize emissions of ammonia and related environmental impacts. Frontiers Media S.A. 2016-03-11 /pmc/articles/PMC4786543/ /pubmed/27014689 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fbioe.2016.00026 Text en Copyright © 2016 Fusi, Bacenetti, Fiala and Azapagic. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Bioengineering and Biotechnology
Fusi, Alessandra
Bacenetti, Jacopo
Fiala, Marco
Azapagic, Adisa
Life Cycle Environmental Impacts of Electricity from Biogas Produced by Anaerobic Digestion
title Life Cycle Environmental Impacts of Electricity from Biogas Produced by Anaerobic Digestion
title_full Life Cycle Environmental Impacts of Electricity from Biogas Produced by Anaerobic Digestion
title_fullStr Life Cycle Environmental Impacts of Electricity from Biogas Produced by Anaerobic Digestion
title_full_unstemmed Life Cycle Environmental Impacts of Electricity from Biogas Produced by Anaerobic Digestion
title_short Life Cycle Environmental Impacts of Electricity from Biogas Produced by Anaerobic Digestion
title_sort life cycle environmental impacts of electricity from biogas produced by anaerobic digestion
topic Bioengineering and Biotechnology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4786543/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27014689
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fbioe.2016.00026
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