Internalizing the external costs of biogas supply chains in the Italian energy sector

Abstract

OriginalInternalizing the external costs of biogas supply chains in the Italian energy sector In Italy biogas support schemes are being revised to allocate subsidies also to the production of biomethane. Energy policies should foster environmentally optimal solutions, especially because social acceptance issues often arise in the case of biogas. In this paper the external cost methodology is adopted to quantify the environmental impact of airborne emissions associated with biogas based energy vectors and their corresponding fossil alternatives. These are evaluated at supply chain level and incorporated in a spatially explicit optimization model. The study is applied to Northern Italy to compare the potential impact of alternative policy options. It is found that, while external costs of biogas based pathways are always lower than corresponding fossil fuel based pathways, differences are generally so small that policies based on internalization of external costs alone would not lead to further development of biogas based technologies. For all utilization pathways consideration of local externalities leads to a less favourable evaluation of biogas based technologies, which even results in external costs higher than fossil natural gas if biogas is allocated to local heating.

Spatio-temporal assessment of integrating intermittent electricity in the EU and Western Balkans power sector under ambitious CO2 emission policies

“…The adaptability of the model to different applications has been demonstrated in previous studies, for example, on bioenergy and intermittent RE coupled with carbon capture and utilization (CCU) [18], bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) [19], algae cultivation from captured CO2 [20], and, recently, decarbonization of steel production in Europe [21]. BeWhere has been used for national [22][23][24] and regional [18,25] studies, as well as for studies at the European scale [26].…”

A Review of Commercial Biogas Systems and Lessons for Africa

“…It has been pointed out that without government mandates and favourable economic policies, it is difficult for electricity from commercial biogas plants to be competitive in the electricity market [119]. This is more pronounced in regions where environmental externalities are not associated with the final price of electricity from fossil fuels [10,120], leading to disinterest from the private sector. Due to the immaturity of commercial biogas plants in Africa, economic policies, including subsidies and favourable FiTs are needed to promote them.…”

Enhancing Eco-Efficiency of Agro-Products’ Closed-Loop Supply Chain under the Belt and Road Initiatives: A System Dynamics Approach

“…(2,6), (3,7.5), (4,8), (5,9), (6,8.8), (7,10), (8,10) (1,8), (2,9.7), (3,10), (4,10.8), (5,11), (6,10.6), (7,11.8), (8,12), (9,13), (10,12. …”

“…For instance, it may increase the number of stakeholders involved, hence complicating the coordination of the supply chain network [9]. Meanwhile, additional costs including the cost of agro-waste collection, pretreatment, and transportation may be incurred, causing an impact on the value added to the supply chain [10,11].…”