Technology overview of biogas production in anaerobic digestion plants: A European evaluation of research and development

Grando, Rafaela Lora; Antune, Adelaide Maria de Souza; Fonseca, Fabiana Valéria da; Sánchez, Antoni; Barrena, Raquel; Font, Xavier

doi:10.1016/j.rser.2017.05.079

Cited by 172 publications

(85 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…In Europe, 1.35×10 7 tons of biogas was produced in 2014, corresponding to 3% of natural gas consumption of the continent [3]. It is however noteworthy that the economic viability of AD partly depends on government grants in many European countries because biomethane is not yet a competitive energy source on the market [4]. Will it become competitive in the future?…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Upscaling of Microbial Electrolysis Cell Integrating Microbial Electrosynthesis: Insights, Challenges and Perspectives

Tian¹,

Lacroix²,

Quéméner³

et al. 2019

Preprint

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Recent development of microbial electrochemical technologies has allowed microbial electrosynthesis (MES) of organic molecules with microbial electrolysis cell treating waste organic matter. An electrolytic cell with a MES cathode (ME-ME cell) can produce soluble organic molecules with higher market price than biomethane, and thus satisfy both economic and environmental interest. However, the sustainability of bioanode activity could become a major concern. In this work, a 15-liter ME-ME reactor was designed with specific electrode configurations. An electrochemical model was established to assess the feasibility and possible performance of the design, considering the “aging” effect of the bioanode. The reactor was then built and operated for performance evaluation as well as bioanode regeneration assay. Biowaste from an industrial deconditioning platform was used as substrate for bioanode. The COD removal rate in the anodic chamber reached 0.83 g day-1 L-1 of anolyte and the anodic coulombic efficiency reached 98.6%. Acetate was produced with a rate of 0.53 g day-1 L-1 of catholyte, reaching a maximum concentration of 8.3 g L-1. A potential difference was applied between the bioanode and biocathode independent of reference electrodes. The active biocathode was dominated by members of the Genus Pseudomonas, rarely reported so far for MES activity.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Upscaling of Microbial Electrolysis Cell Integrating Microbial Electrosynthesis: Insights, Challenges and Perspectives

Tian¹,

Lacroix²,

Quéméner³

et al. 2019

Preprint

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“…The industrialization level of China's biogas industry remains low compared with that of Europe [55], even if the academic publications on biogas and AD technology by Chinese scholars are booming. Currently, the typical technical problems of biogas projects in China are low biogas production rate and utilization efficiency.…”

Section: Equipment and Technology Innovationmentioning

confidence: 99%

What Could China Give to and Take from Other Countries in Terms of the Development of the Biogas Industry?

et al. 2020

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Anaerobic digestion is one of the most sustainable and promising technologies for the management of organic residues. China plays an important role in the world's biogas industry and has accumulated rich and valuable experience, both positive and negative. The country has established relatively complete laws, policies and a subsidy system; its world-renowned standard system guarantees the implementation of biogas projects. Its prefabricated biogas industry has been developed, and several biogas-linked agricultural models have been disseminated. Nonetheless, the subsidy system in China's biogas industry is inflexible and cannot lead to marketization, unlike that of its European counterpart. Moreover, the equipment and technology levels of China's biogas industry are still lagging and underdeveloped. Mono-digestion, rather than co-digestion, dominates the biogas industry. In addition, biogas upgrading technology is immature, and digestate lacks planning and management. China's government subsidy is reconsidered in this work, resulting in the recommendation that subsidy should be based on products (i.e., output-oriented) instead of only input subsidy for construction. The policy could focus on the revival of abandoned biogas plants as well.Sustainability 2020, 12, 1490 2 of 21 effectively and widely implemented in countries where governments and institutions are involved in the subsidy, planning, design, construction, operation, and maintenance of biogas plants [7,8]. A number of countries in Asia and Africa have launched massive campaigns to popularize biogas technology via government support and international aid (Table 1) [9,10]. Globally, it is estimated that 50 million micro-digesters (family size), 132,000 biogas engineering projects (about 15,000 in Europe [11]) and 700 biogas upgrading plants are operating [12]. Promotion of biogas technology has several opportunities and obstacles. Numerous studies have focused on these aspects to discuss the country scenario. Many case and field studies have aimed to assess biogas technology to verify its multiple benefits [13,14] and identify potential barriers [8,[15][16][17][18][19][20][21]. However, these studies are limited to individual country scenarios. The progress and prospect of the biogas industry in different nations vary widely. Nearly no crosswise comparisons have been made for different countries. The current study intends to fill this gap.China leads the world in domestic biogas technology. With the expansion of the biogas industry, lessons learned, whether positive or negative, would be valuable and abundant for countries whose biogas industry is still at the initial stage, including nations mainly in South and Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Meanwhile, along with the development of medium-and large-scale biogas plants (MLBPs), progress is not trouble-free [22]. (According to the Chinese biogas standard NY/T 667-2011 Classification of Scale for Biogas Engineering, the thresholds of medium-scale and large-scale biogas plant are 300 m 3 and 500 m...

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“…The fermentation process is sensitive to disturbances caused by operational reasons or inhibitors. Grandoa et al (2017) describe the rapid technological progress made over the past decades in the field of anaerobic digestion (AD) for the production of biogas. This progress can also be seen from patent applications.…”

Section: Conditions For Biogas Production In the Context Of Anaerobicmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although AD is not a new technology, it has changed enormously in recent years. Although the following quotation from Grandoa et al (2017) appears questionable based on, for example, Jacobs et al (2017) or Auburger et al, (2017), it shows the sustainable potential of biogas production: "Anaerobic digestion technology for biogas production constitutes today the most sustainable way of using the energy present in biomass and other wastes, because it also increases nutrient recovery and reduces greenhouse gas emissions." One of these major advances is the flexible, demand-oriented production, and use of biogas.…”

Section: Conditions For Biogas Production In the Context Of Anaerobicmentioning

confidence: 99%

Status quo and perspectives of biogas production for energy and material utilization

Bahrs

Angenendt

2018

GCB Bioenergy

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Biogas is in many respects a serious alternative to other fossil resources and complements other renewable energy sources from wind and sun. Biogas can be produced in many places decentrally. Its energy potential is high, and it is widely used in the EU and all over the world. With more than 16,000 ktoe of oil equivalent in the EU in 2016, it corresponds to approximately 8% of the total primary energy produced by renewable energies in the EU, produced with nearly 17,000 biogas plants. Nevertheless, the production costs of biogas and its products like energy, heat, and fuel are still too high. Kost et al. (2018) show a comparison of electricity generation costs of different renewable energies and their future potentials. While electricity from huge biogas plants offers generation costs from 10 to 15 ct/kWh, electricity from onshore wind and huge solar systems offers generation costs from 4 to 8 ct/kWh. Although substantial progress has been made with regard to substrate use, production techniques and market designs, many more innovations are needed throughout the biogas value chain for it to be competitive in energy markets without high subsidies. As several papers in the special issue on biogas show, there are numerous innovations and product designs with regard to energy and material uses that could maintain or even increase the importance of biogas production both within and outside of the EU. There are many potential benefits of biogas, as it offers high shares of produced renewable energies as well as large amounts of material products like digestates and in future maybe products of higher value such as proteins or lactic acids.

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Technology overview of biogas production in anaerobic digestion plants: A European evaluation of research and development

Cited by 172 publications

References 31 publications

Upscaling of Microbial Electrolysis Cell Integrating Microbial Electrosynthesis: Insights, Challenges and Perspectives

Upscaling of Microbial Electrolysis Cell Integrating Microbial Electrosynthesis: Insights, Challenges and Perspectives

What Could China Give to and Take from Other Countries in Terms of the Development of the Biogas Industry?

Status quo and perspectives of biogas production for energy and material utilization

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