Monday 12 May 2014
Biogas: environmentally friendly production of energy can improve farmer's wealth
Polish government is encouraging farmers to invest in the domestic power plant which not only produce energy but also get rid of problematic animal waste (mainly cows' ) and produces fertilizer of very high quality.
Biogas is a
name used for a variety of products that are combustible
gases and products of anaerobic
fermentation (fermentation without access to the oxygen).
Biogas can be created in the process of burning sugar sewage
(sewage formed in the process of producing sugar and sugary products),
municipal waste, animal manure, slurry and waste of the food/catering industry.
Polish Ministry of Economics has sketched
the direction of the development of the biogas industry in Poland, seeing a lot of potential
in the use of agricultural by-products as part of generating
additional profit to the farmers.
Biogas production is already taking place
for sometime in the land fields. Modern
landfills have special digesters or bioreactors, in which the anaerobic
digestion of waste is carried out at constant temperatures of 33-37 ° C for
mesophilic methanogenic bacteria. From
the landfill area of approximately 15 ha, around 20 to 60 GWh of energy can
be produced per year if the annual mass of landfilled waste is about 180
000 tons.
If we consider biogas production at farms, we mean production in biogas digesters. Most fermentation of this sort takes place at 30-40 degrees ( mesophilic fermentation ). This type of fermentation is frequently to as biogas “Agrogas production” , especially if it is obtained from the slurry or manure . From 1 sm3 slurry, it can be obtained approximately 20m3 of biogas and even more from manure: from 1 sm3 30 sm3 . The residue after fermentation is a valuable fertilizer ( based on the resources found on the biogas production) .
If we consider biogas production at farms, we mean production in biogas digesters. Most fermentation of this sort takes place at 30-40 degrees ( mesophilic fermentation ). This type of fermentation is frequently to as biogas “Agrogas production” , especially if it is obtained from the slurry or manure . From 1 sm3 slurry, it can be obtained approximately 20m3 of biogas and even more from manure: from 1 sm3 30 sm3 . The residue after fermentation is a valuable fertilizer ( based on the resources found on the biogas production) .
The previously mentioned document,
describing potential profit of biogas, issued by the Ministry of Economy ( “Kierunki Rozwoju biogazowni rolniczych w
Polsce w latach 2010-2020”) states that the current situation on the
agricultural market enables production of 5 million standard cubic meters of
biogas a year (purely theoretical, taking into consideration the number of
fields and its average size). The calculation has been made based on the
primary usage of the animal waste, secondary using the by-products of food
industry. In fact, what can be produced at the moment is around 1,7 sm3 of
biogas annually. In Poland, on yearly consumption of natural gas is around 14
million sm3 – consequently, after the processing of the produced material,
biogas could cover 10 % of national gas demand.
The investment in the biogas power plants
(located in the agricultural areas) would not only bring the potential financial
benefits to the farmers (who could even cover their domestic energy consumption
with produced electricity or heat) but also has considerable advantages
regarding environment. As said previously, biogas is mainly produced from the products
of anaerobic fermentation, which are
mainly the waste ( food waste, municipal waste, animal manure, slurry
etc.) – there are not many ways that this products can be used. Thanks for its
usage in the combustion power plants, the problem of utilizing the waste or its
storage disappears. Furthermore, the process of combusting products to biogas
enables production of high quality fertilizer - environment-friendly
organic fertilizer in the form of
remnants of post-fermentation origin.
Concluding, the combustion of waste
products of animals or food industry can be very beneficial from a financial
and environmental point of view. The waste which, until now, has been useless
and caused problems with storing, could be used for production of energy
(electricity and heat) and fertilizer. If to add the possibility of co-financing
of construction and operation of
this sort of power plant from various development programs of
the European Union – it seems to be perfect plan towards development and
wealth.
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