The role of biogas solutions in sustainable biorefineries

Hagman, Linda; Blumenthal, Alyssa; Eklund, Mats; Svensson, Niclas

doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.03.180

Cited by 96 publications

(52 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…Biogas production has become common practice or is considered to be implemented or expanded in many countries [1]. This trend can be attributed to a number of advantages combined in anaerobic digestion: it is suitable for manifold feedstocks including diverse types of organic residues; it can be integrated into multi-faceted production systems for food, feed, bioenergy and biomaterials; and it can be adapted in a variety of scales from household to large commercial plants [2][3][4][5][6][7]. Several countries have promoted biogas production by subsidies either in the form of feed-in tariffs or through supporting investments [1,[8][9][10].…”

Section: The Controversial Development Of Agricultural Biogas Productmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Green biorefineries convert herbaceous biomass into value-added products such as feed rich in proteins and energy, lactic acid to produce biopolymers, fiber, organic fertilizer and bioenergy [129,195,196]. In these biorefineries, the remaining solid fractions still offer substantial biogas potential [197], and the digestate can be treated further to produce nutrient-rich fertilizers and stable soil amendments [3,198]. Residues from industrial crop cultivation and processing can also be used as feedstocks for anaerobic digestion [199].…”

Section: Coupling Anaerobic Digestion With Other Production Systems Omentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Future Agricultural Biogas Plant in Germany: A Vision

et al. 2019

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After nearly two decades of subsidized and energy crop-oriented development, agricultural biogas production in Germany is standing at a crossroads. Fundamental challenges need to be met. In this article we sketch a vision of a future agricultural biogas plant that is an integral part of the circular bioeconomy and works mainly on the base of residues. It is flexible with regard to feedstocks, digester operation, microbial communities and biogas output. It is modular in design and its operation is knowledge-based, information-driven and largely automated. It will be competitive with fossil energies and other renewable energies, profitable for farmers and plant operators and favorable for the national economy. In this paper we discuss the required contribution of research to achieve these aims.

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Section: The Controversial Development Of Agricultural Biogas Productmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Coupling Anaerobic Digestion With Other Production Systems Omentioning

confidence: 99%

The Future Agricultural Biogas Plant in Germany: A Vision

et al. 2019

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“…In addition to digestate usage, there are other options for material use of individual derivatives from biogas production (Hagman, Blumenthal, Eklund, & Svensson, 2018). The products resulting from the fermentation steps of hydrolysis, acidogenesis, acetogenesis, and methanogenesis can equally be used as platform chemicals for other manufacturing processes.…”

Section: Productsmentioning

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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“…Anaerobic digestion (AD) can be applied for industrial purposes to produce bio-methane (CH 4 ), which is used as renewable energy in transportation or for heat and power production. AD can play a key role in reducing fossil fuel use in transportation and industry, while at the same time handling organic waste and producing renewable fertilizer [1]. AD is a complex process that requires several different microbial steps and entails the formation of various intermediary components.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Inoculum Source Determines Acetate and Lactate Production during Anaerobic Digestion of Sewage Sludge and Food Waste

et al. 2019

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Acetate production from food waste or sewage sludge was evaluated in four semi-continuous anaerobic digestion processes. To examine the importance of inoculum and substrate for acid production, two different inoculum sources (a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) and a co-digestion plant treating food and industry waste) and two common substrates (sewage sludge and food waste) were used in process operations. The processes were evaluated with regard to the efficiency of hydrolysis, acidogenesis, acetogenesis, and methanogenesis and the microbial community structure was determined. Feeding sewage sludge led to mixed acid fermentation and low total acid yield, whereas feeding food waste resulted in the production of high acetate and lactate yields. Inoculum from WWTP with sewage sludge substrate resulted in maintained methane production, despite a low hydraulic retention time. For food waste, the process using inoculum from WWTP produced high levels of lactate (30 g/L) and acetate (10 g/L), while the process initiated with inoculum from the co-digestion plant had higher acetate (25 g/L) and lower lactate (15 g/L) levels. The microbial communities developed during acid production consisted of the major genera Lactobacillus (92-100%) with food waste substrate, and Roseburia (44-45%) and Fastidiosipila (16-36%) with sewage sludge substrate. Use of the outgoing material (hydrolysates) in a biogas production system resulted in a non-significant increase in bio-methane production (+5-20%) compared with direct biogas production from food waste and sewage sludge.by slower-growing bacteria that thrive best at neutral pH. These differences in reaction speed and pH optimum allow AD to be divided into two separate production steps, where H 2 and VFA are generated in a primary acid reactor and bio-methane in a secondary reactor. This two-stage approach has been shown to optimize the overall AD process and increase methane yield [3][4][5][6][7][8]. It also allows additional applications, such as the production of bio-hydrogen or of a range of VFA that can be extracted and used as "green" chemical feedstock for further conversion [8,9]. The typical VFA composition in an acidic AD reactor is a mixture dominated by acetate, propionate, butyrate, and valerate [10-13], but it can also be dominated by acetate, butyrate, and H 2 [14], or mainly consist of lactate and/or acetate [15,16]. The amount and type of acid produced depend on both chemical, technical, and microbiological parameters, often interlinked. Parameters shown to be of importance include, for example, reactor configuration, substrate composition and pre-treatment, hydraulic retention time (HRT), temperature, pH, as well as the choice of inoculum and final microbial composition [10,11,[17][18][19][20][21][22].Among the different acids that can be produced in a two-stage set-up, acetate is a highly interesting compound. In addition to being an energy carrier between different stages within AD, it can be used for the production of value-added products such as biopolymers, com...

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The role of biogas solutions in sustainable biorefineries

Cited by 96 publications

References 44 publications

The Future Agricultural Biogas Plant in Germany: A Vision

The Future Agricultural Biogas Plant in Germany: A Vision

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

Inoculum Source Determines Acetate and Lactate Production during Anaerobic Digestion of Sewage Sludge and Food Waste

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