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Bes u s t a i n a b l eThe magazine of bioenergy and the bioeconomy

Perennial Energy Crops | Biogas in Development | Mobile Heat StorageBiogas and Organic Agriculture | Manure in Baltic Regions

INNOVATIVeBIOGASSOluTIONS

Issue 1 - January 2014

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EU BC&E 201422nd European BiomassConference and Exhibition

The leading international platform for dialogue between research, industry, policy and business of biomass

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editorial

Perennial energy crops deserve more attention

M y first encounter with perennial lignocellulosic energy crops dates back to almost ten years ago, when I visited a short rotation coppice plantation in

central Italy for the first time. As an agronomist my attention was caught by the novelty of seeing very dense stands of selected clones of poplar, whose branches could reach a height of 8 meters in just two years. Moreover they could theoreti-cally be harvested every year and could be grown with much less inputs than those required by traditional crops.

Perennial energy crops may offer several benefits to European agriculture and society such as the diversification of farmers’ incomes, carbon sequestra-tion, preservation and increase of soil fertility, and even recycling of municipal wastewaters. In addition, they could offer a vital contribution to the take-off of commercial advanced biofuel projects and to the achievement of Europe’s 2020 renewable energy targets; personally I am convinced that this could be achieved in a sustainable way. Yet their potential remains mostly untapped and the recent proposals for the new biofuels policy even excluded dedicated crops from the list of suitable feedstock for advanced biofuels. I hope the first article of this issue can refresh our minds on why significant research efforts were invested in cultivat-ing new perennial energy crops in recent times and why we shouldn’t absolutely discard them as a resource for the emerging bioeconomy.

Today bioenergy has fully demonstrated its leading role in driving rural devel-opment and the most successful example of this is probably represented by the growth of the biogas sector, with nearly 14.000 plants and 7.5 GWe of installed ca-pacity disseminated all over Europe. In some countries biogas has greatly helped livestock and dairy farmers to integrate their farms’ revenues while offering them an effective solution to manage slurry, by using it as a substrate for anaerobic di-gestion. So far traditional annual crops such as maize have been the main energy crops used in the biogas sector and the area of agricultural land dedicated to these species has reached considerable extensions in several countries (i.e. Germany and Italy), sometimes sprouting an intense debate over their competition for land with other food crops and the environmental impact of maize monocultures.

As a matter of fact, the biogas industry, challenged by this and other issues, is already developing effective solutions to enlarge the list of viable crop-based substrates while maximizing their biogas yield to improve the sustainability of its supply chains. These solutions are some of the technological advancements presented in this issue of BE-Sustainable, whose special focus on biogas was conceived as a contribution to show how innovation is transforming the biogas sector and how it can be effectively applied to development in very different contexts all over the world.

Enjoy reading.

Maurizio CocchiEditor

editorial@besustainablemagazine.com

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BE Sustainable is published by ETA-Florence Renewable Energies, Via Giacomini 28, 50132 Florence, Italy

Editor-in-Chief: Maurizio Cocchi | editorial@besustainablemagazine.com | twitter: @maurizio_cocchi

Managing editor: Angela Grassi | angela@besustainablemagazine.com

Authors: E. Maletta, M. V. Lasorella, W. Baaske, B. Lancaster, V. Magnolfi, C. Uggè, M. Arndt, K. Svane Bech, S. Luostarinen, K. Tybirk, S. Kent, M. Speets

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ISSN - 2283-9486

Bes u s t a i n a b l e

BE sustainable ETA-Florence Renewable Energies via Giacomini, 2850132 Florence - Italy www.besustainablemagazine.comIssue 1 - January 2014 ISSN - 2283-9486

Editorial notes · M. Cocchi | 3

News | Bioenergy and Bioeconomy News around The World 7

Resources · E. Maletta et al. | Perennial Energy Crops 8

Technology · M.Cocchi | Biogas Innovations for a Sustainable Economy 16

Technology · M.Cocchi | Biogas 2.0 18

Sustainability · W. Baaske et al. | Sustainable Biogas Production in Organic Farming 22

Scenarios · K. Svane Bech | Seaweeds Suitable for Biogas Production 31

Development · S. Kent | Biogas in Development 36

Development · M. Speets | Global Alliance for Productive Biogas 40

Research · V. Magnolfi et al. | Organic Waste Management 27

Calendar · Upcoming Bioenergy Events 44

Technology · M. Arndt | Mobile Heath Storages 28

Resources · S. Luostarinen et al. | Biogas Potentials in the Baltic Sea Region 32

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newsBioenergy and bioeconomy news around the world

Denmark biggest importer of wood pellets in the world

Danish imports are expected to increase from 2 MMT in 2012 to over 3 MMT in 2020. The main trade partners are the Baltic countries, 960,000 MT in 2012 and Russia, 348,000 MT in 2012. U.S. wood pellet exports to Denmark were only 38,000 MT.

5 November 2013http://tinyurl.com/nnzz93m

+5,4% in primary energy production from solid biomass in 2012

According to the solid biomass barometer report, In 2012 biomass heating with heating networks increased by 12.9% and power generation from biomass increased by 7.8%, producing 79.5 TWh of electricity mainly from co-firing.Since 2000 the production of primary energy from solid biomass has increased at a mean annual rate of +3.8%.

December 2013http://tinyurl.com/okprh4v

Study confirms minor role of EU biofuels on rising food prices

The report developed by Dutch consul-tancy Ecofys has explored the role of biofuels and other driving forces behind the 2006-2008 food crisis and the 2011 commodity price spike. The main findings show that biofuels have a definitely small role in driving-up food prices, which are far more influenced by other factors par-ticularly at local level, such as limited re-serves, food waste, financial speculation, and logistic costs. The report states that the historic impact of EU biofuels demand until 2010 increased world grain prices by about 1-2% and in absence of a cap on food crops-based biofuels, only an additional 1% increase by 2020 should be expected. On the other hand EU biodiesel demand for the same period likely had a bigger impact on oilseed prices, around 4%, and may increase future prices up to 10% by 2020.

10 September 2013http://tinyurl.com/nju55yy

EU Ministers reject Commission's biofuels proposal

The EC proposal introducing a 5% cap on the use 1st gen.biofuels and measures to promote biofuels from alternative sources was rejected by the Council. Now the file will be handled by the Greek presidency but with the European elections this May, the Council is unlikely to revisit the issue until the second half of 2014.

12 December 2013http://tinyurl.com/ncgxrkz

WELTEC builds high-efficiency biogas plants in France with heat recovery and use of organic waste

Apart from agricultural substrates, the plants, whose construction has already started, will use sludge and organic waste such as food leftovers. For this reason they will be equipped with hygienisation units in order to utilise these substrates.The residual heat will be used in a digestate dryer in order to reduce the amount of liquid manure and sell the dried digestate as fertilizer.

11 September 2013http://tinyurl.com/natrwo3

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newsBioenergy and bioeconomy news around the world

Chempolis and ONGC to develop a biorefinery from non-food biomass in India

Chempolis Ltd, a Finland based biorefin-ing technology corporation signed a Memorandum of Understanding with ONGC, India’s leading oil & gas explora-tion company, for the development of a biorefinery project in India. Chempolis’ 3rd generation biorefining technology is based on selective fractionation of biomass into sugars and lignin for the sustainable co-production of ethanol and multiple products in a sustainable way.

3 November 2013http://tinyurl.com/ntubcdu

EIB will provide 65 million EURO loan to Biochemtex

The European Investment Bank is providing a 65 million EURO loan to support the research and development projects of Biochemtex, a subsidiary of the Mossi and Ghisolfi Group. Biochemtex’s 2013-2016 investment programme concerns research to improve the technologies for converting non-food biomass to biofuels and other chemical molecules with industrial applications including ethylene glycol, a raw material used in the production of PET (a plastic used in food packaging). http://tinyurl.com/o2pp6r7

FAO: global wood pellet production at 19 million tonnes in 2012

According to FAO statistics in 2012 about half of the global wood pellet production (9.3 million tonnes) was traded internationally. Europe and North America accounted for almost all global production (66% and 31% respectively) and consumption (80% and 17% respectively). http://tinyurl.com/qesqvh6

Italy introduces incentives for biomethane

With a decree approved in December 2013, Italy has introduced a new system of incentives for biomethane fed into the grid, destined for cogeneration or sold as motor fuel. These are measures which could attract up to € 2 billion of investment over the next five years. http://tinyurl.com/nbvrcem

M&G Chemicals planning a bioethanol and bioglycols plant in China

The second generation biorefinery will be built in the region of Fuyang, Anhui Province of China, for the production of bio-ethanol and bio-glycols. The plant will employ the PROESA technology licensed from Beta Renewables and will be approximately four times the size of the Crescentino plant, Italy.The project should be developed through a joint-venture with Chinese company Guozhen which will supply one million metric tons of straw biomass and will use the lignin by-product from the bio-refinery to feed a 45 MW cogeneration plant.

19 November 2013http://tinyurl.com/nks57xy

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Emiliano Maletta | Consultant and researcher at Bioenergy Crops LTD (UK) and CIEMAT (Spain)Maria Valentina Lasorella | Consultant and researcher at Bioenergy Crops LTD (UK) and INEA (Italy)

PERENNIAL ENERgy CRoPS No LoNgER “A ShoULD”, BUT “A MUST” To AChIEvE RENEwABLE ENERgy TARgETS IN EURoPE

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While several researchers and organisa-tions in Europe promote solid biomass for bioheat and biopower, there is a miscon-ception on how most of the goal can be achieved. The availability and economic

feasibility of agricultural and forestry residues are both limited compared with an increasing demand. Energy crops are required, and they should be perennial species with low inputs to maximise environmental benefits. It is also ex-pected that most of these perennial energy crops will use marginal, abandoned or low competitive lands. This arti-cle aims at showing a different approach in which solid biomass residues availability and handling is limited. We suggest that Europe should promote perennial energy crops or it will be very difficult to achieve our renewable energy goals. But we also suggest that alternative crops with lower production cost at farm level and reduced inputs need to be implemented seriously at commercial scale. Limited residues for an increasing demand of renewable energy

Increasing the use of renewable energies offers signifi-cant opportunities for Europe to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and secure its energy supply. However, the sub-stantial rise in the use of biomass from agriculture, forestry and waste for producing energy might put additional pres-sure on farmland and forest biodiversity as well as on soil and water resources. It may also counteract other current and potential future environmental policies and objectives,

such as waste minimization or environmentally-oriented farming. Renewable energy policy in Europe will gener-ate an increase in lignocellulosic biomass demand of 44% between 2010 and 2020.

What is the potential to increase regional supply for bio-mass from forest and other sources, and what actions are being taken to release this potential? The key to the future development of European biomass markets resides in the region's supply potential and how well it can mobilize new sources of supply, such as forest residues, agricultural resi-dues and bioenergy crops.

Several reports of the Environmental European Agency (EEA) found that expected availability of biomass resourc-es is limited. EEA reports (2013) established bioenergy should be produced in line with EU objectives to use re-sources more efficiently. According to the EEA analysis, the most efficient energy use of biomass is for heating and electricity as well as advanced biofuels, also called ‘second generation’ biofuels. First generation transport biofuels, for example biodiesel based on oilseed rape or bioethanol from cereals, have both shown to be far less efficient in the use of resources and fossil energy inputs compared to lignocel-lulosic energy crops.

A broader mix of lignocellulosic crops to reduce envi-ronmental impacts is required. Specifically, this should in-clude perennial crops, which are not harvested annually, for example energy grasses or short rotation willow planta-tions. This would enhance, rather than harm, ‘ecosystem

Harvesting of short rotation poplar in Italy

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services’ provided by farmland such as flood prevention and water filtration.

More bioenergy crops would be required to achieve the goals (Figure 1) as wastes are limited. The environmentally-compatible primary biomass potential increases from about 190 million tons of oil equivalent (MtOE) in 2010 to about 295 MtOE in 2030. This compares to a use of 69 MtOE in 2003 (of which the environmentally-compatible part is in-cluded in the 295 MtOE). The bioenergy potential in 2030 represents around 15–16 % of the projected primary energy requirements of the EU-25 in 2030, and 17% of the current energy consumption, compared to 4% of bioenergy share in 2003. But why are energy crops required? Some simple, but strong, arguments are explained below.

With bioenergy receiving high attention both in EU27 and national policy agendas for meeting the RED 2020 tar-gets, bioenergy crops are still expected to have the major share in its contribution to the energy & transport sectors.

Domestic biomass could contribute significantly to the total energy supply in Europe, in the long-term perspective up to 11.7 EJ y−1 in the EU15 and 5.5 EJ y−1 in the ACC10, under some restrictions on land availability. Consequently, there are no significant resource limitations in meeting the biomass target (5.6 EJ y−1) indicated in the 1997 EC White Paper on renewables. However, from the current state of implementation of renewable energy policies in the EU15, it can be concluded that it is very unlikely that the EC bio-mass target will be met within the intended time frame.

This requires immediate action, especially since largest bi-omass potentials lay on bioenergy crops, which have long lead times. For this reason agricultural policy in Europe will also be a key factor for the future of bioenergy. In the light of current surplus food production in the EU, bioen-ergy crops should be regarded as an interesting alternative to food crops; even more so when considering the enlarge-ment of the EU, since accession of new Member States will accentuate the problem of overproduction.

This analysis also shows that the potential biomass re-sources are unevenly distributed.Tougher biomass targets in the EU over time may therefore increase international biofuel trade within Europe, and be a driving force for solid biofuel imports from non-EU countries in other continents.Since more than 20 years, production, pre-treatment and use of short rotation coppice (SRC) have been fully de-veloped in Sweden and at commercial phases in the north-west European countries. Herbaceous crops are tested up to a large scale in the Scandinavian countries, Germany, Austria and the Netherlands. As Panoutsou et al. (2011) es-tablished, “[…] it is expected that dedicated cropping with perennials for bioenergy is most likely to take place on land that is not needed for the production of food and feed production nor biofuel crops. […]1. Similar results were found in last EEA report (2013) which explores different future options, illustrating which bioenergy types are most resource-efficient and which have the lowest environmen-tal impact.

1 Calliope Panoutsou, B. Elbersen and H. Böttcher. bionergy crops in the European context. Paper prepared for Biomass Futures project funded by the Intelligent Energy Europe Programme. 2011.

Figure 1. The agricultural potential comprises dedicated bioenergy crops plus cuttings from grassland and was calculated for EU-25 without Cyprus, Luxembourg and Malta. Source: EEA (2006).

Primary bioenergy potential, MtOE

Additionalagriculturalpotential(DE, FR)

Additionalforestpotential

Agriculture

Forestry

Waste

Effect ofincreasingenergy andCO2 pricestowards 2030

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Biomass collection and logistic optimization are main barriers

Large amounts of solid biomass are currently produced, traded and used for energy purposes in the EU. Also, in-creasing volumes of unrefined and refined biomass are im-ported from outside the EU to several European countries.

While the traded volumes are most likely in most cases relatively small compared to local production and con-sumption of solid biomass, biomass trade has shown strong growth in recent years, and there are good reasons to be-lieve that this will continue in the next years. Countries with little domestic biomass resources and high targets for renewable electricity, renewable heat and (eventually 2nd generation) liquid biofuels may increasingly depend on imported solid biomass.

EEA (2006) estimated that environmentally- compatible annual primary biomass potential is 7,950 PJ (190 Mtoe) in 2010, 9,880 PJ (236 Mtoe) in 2020 and 12,351 PJ (295 Mtoe) in 2030.

Agricultural residues can provide a limited biomass feedstock based in the transportation system barriers and logistic constraints in EU.

On the other hand, countries with ample solid biomass resources are increasingly discovering the international markets for solid biomass, and especially wood pellet plants are frequently built with the main (or the only) pur-pose of exporting.

Crop residue removal and impacts on soil productivity in the long term

Cereal straw, which is most often returned to the soil in arable cropping systems, is of renewed interest as a potential source of bioenergy. However, this practice im-plies systematic removal of aerial biomass with annual crops which has been often considered very controversial issue, particularly in soils having a low soil organic car-bon (SOC) content. There is serious evidence that soil can be affected and damaged seriously from straw collection in large scale management at farm level. Straw coverage increases topsoil carbon and nitrogen contents, moisture, and total porosity as well as reduces variability of topsoil temperature and in turn moderated microbial biomass and activity.

Additionally, soil carbon changes can determine large fossil inputs required from nitrogen fertilizers as organic matter reductions can occur in the topsoil and this is exten-sively proven by scientist in Europe and worldwide.

The lack of perennial alternatives and rotation options at farm level is another problem. Since Common Agricul-tural Reforms (CAP) from nineties, Europe has been ex-periencing a decrease in rotations with pastures between annual cropping systems. Set-aside measures and decrease in livestock production and extensive grassland manage-ment has determined dominance of monocultures. This is particularly relevant in semiarid countries or regions with

2000 2010 2020 2030 2040

Energy crops on agricultural and marginal land

Min.Max.

700(17)

1 400(33)

800(19)

6 100(146)

800(19)

12 000(287)

6 000(143)

22 000(191)

6 100(146)

22 000(525)

Forestry and forest residues

Min.Max.

1 000(24)

3 900(93)

1 000(24)

3 200(76)

900(21)

3 900(93)

900(21)

2 400(57)

2 400(57)

Agricultural residues and organic waste

Min.Max.

2 000(28)

2 800(67)

2 900(69)

3 900(93)

1 500(36)

4 300(103)

3 100(74)

3 100(74)

n.a.

Total Min.Max.

3 700(88)

8 100(195)

4 700(112)

13 000(310)

3 200(76)

20 000(478)

10 000(239)

14 000(334)

n.a.

Table I. Summary of biomass energy potentials in EU27 reported in different studies (Rettenmaier N. et al., 2008) in PJ (Mtoe).

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extensive areas with low competitive farmlands and grass-lands (mainly Poland and Spain). Incorporating perennial lignocellulosic energy crops or even pasture renovations with no-till operations is feasible. A farmer in semiarid continental and coastal climates in the Mediterranean may rotate marginal barley or even produce grasslands with dedicated energy plantations. Lifetime around 5-10 years of most lignocellulosic grasses may determine a lower re-quirement for fallow management and allow increments in organic matter accumulations in soils.Dedicated biomass plantations are a better approach for less competitive lands

Dedicated plantations of lignocellulosic crops can be a better approach in particular if developed on low competi-tive areas. The findings and expertise of EEA on the subject of biofuels highlight that bioenergy can play an important role in combating climate change, specifically if biomass is used for heating and electricity.

Total arable land in the EU27 amounts to 108.9 million hectares, of which 7.2 million hectares represented set-aside land in 2005. It was estimated that between 17 and 30 million hectares of arable land could be available for en-ergy production, while the total area under bioenergy crops in the EU is around 2.5 million hectares today. Bioenergy crops include the cultivation of energy grasses like Switch-grass and Miscanthus and woody crops and short rotation coppice (e.g. willow, poplar, black locust).

Several species of perennial grasses as Tall wheatgrass (Elytrigia elongata), Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) and Miscanthus (Miscanthus giganteus) or Giant reeds (Arun-do donax) are technically feasible feedstock for biomass combustion, gasification and biogas with enough evidence of agronomic feasibility and even commercial implementa-tion in European countries. Woody crops as short rotation coppice have been analyzed in Europe as feedstock with potential uses for biomass to energy projects. New alter-native perennial species, such as Virginia fanpetals (Sida

hermaphrodita) or Cardoon (Cynara cardunculus), offer excellent feasible alternatives for marginal areas in North-ern and Southern European regions respectively. In Nordic countries reed canary grass for example is cultivated for energy purposes, including around 20,000 hectares in Fin-land. At mid latitude in Europe Miscanthus is cultivated in thousands of hectares for energy purposes too.

The area under bioenergy crops has increased tenfold over the last 10 years, and there is large consensus that the demand for bioenergy crops will further increase rap-idly to cover several millions of hectares in the near future. Currently, significant research and development is focused on sourcing feedstocks from non-food biomass crops for the sustainable production of energy, power and chemical products.

Under the conditions of an environmentally compatible future, the need for a higher share of extensive biomass crop categories, such as grassland cuttings and perennial crops by 2020 and 2030, would not be difficult to fulfil. Over time more techniques are likely to be developed, making the conversion of lignocellulosic crop materials into more efficient energy both with regard to net energy output and costs. The main 'deliverers' of available land for biomass would be Poland, Spain, Italy, United Kingdom, France, Lithuania and Hungary. The new Member States would deliver a substantial share of the available land for biomass, especially when related to their share in the total UAA in the EU (Figure 2).How to produce biomass with “low-input” energy crops in marginal lands?

There are many advantages from utilizing bioenergy crops to supply solid biomass to the industry. However there was also a concern on how to achieve a sustainable cultivation of bioenergy crops with low costs in marginal areas. The truth is that most energy crops require nitro-gen stability in soils and consequently fertilizers. There is also the need to avoid reductions in competitive lands availability for feed and food production. Several studies addressed this issue during past decades, concluding that land availability in EU has been increasing. Based on long term experiences in Europe (5 to 10 years) many energy crops resulted viable on marginal areas and could provide sustainable feedstock considering existing technology when producing and promoting renewable energies and environmental benefits.

Low competitive areas where traditional agriculture is less profitable or subsidy dependent will require more al-

Napier grass fields

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Land potential 2010Netherlands

Ireland

Belgium

Slovenia

Sweden

Estonia

Latvia

Slovakia

Denmark

Austria

Portugal

Czech Republic

Greece

Germany

Hungary

Finland

France

Lithuania

United Kingdom

Italy

Spain

Poland

EU-8

EU-15

0 1 000 2 000 3 000 4 000 5 000 6 000 7 000 8 000 9 000 10 000 11 000 12 000

1 000 ha

Land potential 2030Netherlands

Ireland

Germany

France

Estonia

Portugal

Slovenia

Belgium

Denmark

Finland

Sweden

Latvia

Slovakia

Greece

Austria

Czech Republic

Hungary

Lithuania

United Kingdom

Italy

Spain

Poland

EU-8

EU-15

0 1 000 2 000 3 000 4 000 5 000 6 000 7 000 8 000 9 000 10 000 11 000 12 000

1 000 ha

13 000

Available as land for targeted crop production Available but as cuttings (former grassland + olive groves)

Figure 2. Grassland available for extensive biomass crops (grass cuttings) and arable land available for all dedicated biomass crop production for all investigated EU-25 Member States in 2010 and 2030. Note: No data are available for Cyprus and Malta. Source: EEA based on Wiegmann, K., Fritsche, U. & B. Elbersen: 'Environmentally compatible biomass potential from agricultu-re'. Consultancy report to the EEA, 2005.

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ternatives that are compatible with the promotion of per-ennial dedicated energy plantations. Many new alternative crops with existing evidence on sustainable and environ-mentally compatible performance in semiarid and colder regions allow productive patterns for marginal lands (Fig-ure 3). Synergy to produce highly value added agricul-tural products on small farm size and bioenergy crops in surplus low competitive land are both here suggested to be explored seriously by policy makers. Crop prioritisa-tion by environmental zone gives initial recommendations towards identifying an environmentally compatible crop mix for biomass production in most environmental zones of Europe.

Summing it all, the main barrier is producing at farm level with lower costs. Producing low cost biomass from energy crops is a major difficulty in unfertile soils. Most lignocel-lulosic crops (even perennials) require some fertilizers or even irrigation to produce high yields. Cultivation of Mis-canthus from rhizomes in United Kingdom or plantations of poplar (SRC) on irrigated lands in Southern Spain are both typical examples that have shown higher costs compared to biomass residues during past decades. The reasons is that both alternatives have high establishment cost (cuttings, rhizomes, nursery, planters, etc.) and only high yields may achieve a breakeven point. While most biopower companies can afford biomass cost from 6-8 € per gigajoule (€/GJ) it is required to find low cost alternatives that are only feasible on lands with lower opportunity costs.

Figure 3. Energy crops with enough scientific and commercial evidence in low competitive lands in Europe. Upper photos, Virginia fanpetals (Sida hermaphrodita) in Poland (left), Cardoons (Cynara cardunculus) in Greece, and Miscanthus (Miscanthus. gigan-teus) in France (right). Bottom left to right pictures: Giant reeds (Arundo donax) in Italy, Poplar short rotation coppice (Populus sp.) in Germany, Tall wheatgrass (Elytrigia elongata) in Hungary and Siberian elm (Ulmus pumilla) in Spain.

A possible alternative approach we suggest is to focus on hardy grasses, shrubs and trees with an extremely low cost management at farm level as well as occupying low cost lands (grasslands, extensive areas previously used for not competitive and subsidy dependent livestock schemes). This requires focusing on extensive marginal areas, hav-ing a larger area and improved logistics. Farming Car-doon, Switchgrass, Tall wheatgrass but even Giant reeds and cultivated Virginia fanpetals have been showing better performance in low competitive lands compared to Mis-canthus and many other novel crops that are only viable if yields exceed 20 dry ton/ha per year.

The critical difference in this approach, is to promote en-ergy crops that are not going to produce really high yields, but are compatible with sustainability criteria as they re-quire lower inputs and economic costs per derived biomass (in terms of €/GJ at the gate of the power station, pelletizer or any other final destination or use). In our experience, producing between 7 and 15 dry tons per hectare each year with perennial cropping systems is feasible in most mar-ginal areas of Europe with acceptable costs.

Some examples of sound scientific evidence on the sus-tainability of bioenergy crops and its environmental im-pacts and/or benefits clearly show these trends:

Global warming potentials. Perennial lignocellulos-• ic bioenergy crops can contribute largely to reduc-tions in emissions savings when biomass is used for heat, biogas, power or advanced biofuels.

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Several soil benefits such as erosion control, organic • matter accumulation and introduction of perennials species have been addressed in several studies.Rural employment promotion has been a key issue • of many reports linking the promotion of biomass with dedicated plantations. The report Biofuels in the European Union (EC, 2006) states that "the employment balance of biofuels is estimated to be about 16 jobs per ktoe, nearly all in rural areas" (each 1% proportion of biofuels in total fossil fuel consumption will create between 45000 and 75000 new jobs in rural areas). Impact of bioenergy crops on biodiversity has been • a key issue under debate in recent times. Most re-ports and scientific evidence encourage stakehold-ers and government to introduce perennial species to improve biodiversity in particular in areas with low competitiveness and abandonment.Land use alternatives in low productive areas has • been addressed in several studies on perennial spe-cies as dedicated bioenergy crops in Europe.

The Renewable Energy Directive (2009) and the greening of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) are both current legislative framework promoting perennials grasses and shrubs, agroforestry and grasslands as well short rotation coppice and short rotation forestry for renewable energy production in Europe. Several alternative species can be cultivated as bioenergy crops and have enough background to be promoted in abandoned lands in EU. Knowledge on best practices may allow competitive production costs at farm level ranging from 30 to 70 €/ODT (oven dried ton) as Arundo donax, Cardoon, Tall wheatgrass, Miscanthus, Virginia fanpetals, Siberian elm and many others crops available (see www.bioenergycrops.com for more infor-mation). Having a better understanding on lowest input and sustainable land use patterns and logistic chains would be just the beginning for a new biobased economy.

Detailed literature for this article is available athttp://tinyurl.com/pvhgoj8

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BIogAS INNovATIoNS foR A SUSTAINABLE ECoNoMyMaurizio Cocchi | Editor

Biogas 2.0•Sustaingas project•orion project•Mobile heat storage•Baltic manure•Biogas in development•The gAPB•

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Biogas has become one of the leading technolo-gies in the bioenergy sector and certainly has experienced a significant growth in Europe in the last few years. Anaerobic digestion is indeed a versatile technology which can be adapted to

a number of different conditions; it is relatively easy to adapt to small-scale projects, as well as easy to scale-up to larger modular plants. Moreover it is well suited for use in rural areas and can be used to treat a number of different feedstock, from livestock and municipal organic waste, to dedicated substrates such as ligno-cellulosic crops.

In recent times technological innovations have focused on downstream aspects of the biogas value chain. One ex-ample of this is the upgrading of biogas into biomethane for injection into the gas grid or its use as transport fuel in CNG vehicles. Indeed biomethane has now become a reality in several European countries. Another example is the development of flexible load plants. In Germany where the cumulative capacity of biogas plants already supplies a significant amount of renewable power, biogas could con-tribute to compensating the grid fluctuations generated dur-ing daytime by unpredictable sources such as solar PV and wind. This can be achieved by developing plants that can automatically reduce or halt power production and store bi-ogas when there is surplus electricity in the grid and restart it later when it is needed.

While the market is growing, the biogas industry is also developing innovative solutions to cope with the common and unavoidable challenges of today's bioenergy sector: maximizing energy efficiency and increasing environmen-tal sustainability, while improving economic competitive-ness.

In this regard biogas manufacturers have developed a

number of solutions; in several cases these were obtained through a strong cooperation with research institutions or by adapting technologies previously developed in other sectors. Many of these solutions have already been brought to market, which makes the biogas sector a successful ex-ample of market-driven innovation.

The European Biogas Association has recently published a report on good practices and innovations in the biogas industry. Other innovations are in the pipeline and are be-ing tested at pilot or demonstration scale by different or-ganizations, such as the cases of mobile heat storage sys-tems which promise to transport residual heat from biogas plants to where it is most needed, or micro-scale digesters which could open the possibility to recover a large amount of food waste directly at their sources, avoiding its disposal into landfills. An international project in Central Europe is developing solutions to promote biogas from organic farm-ing.

While the adoption of these hi-tech solution is needed to drive the development of the biogas sector in Europe, simpler and more traditional technologies are helping peo-ple in developing countries to provide for their households energy needs. Productive applications of biogas in heating, mechanical power and electricity generation are also being increasingly adopted in developing countries, as demon-strated by the recent launch of the Global Alliance for Pro-ductive Biogas (GAPB) with the aim of alleviating poverty and contributing to a sustainable economy, by providing people with productive biogas in those countries.

Across the world biogas is a powerful tool to achieve sustainable development and decentralized energy produc-tion. Find more about these innovative ideas in the follow-ing pages.

technology

Source Statistics European Biogas Association 2013

8700

1264

606557

481436

312252 242

186 176119 92 78 50 37 33 33 27 26 22 22 21 15 12 7 3 3

Ger

man

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Italy

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Czec

Rep

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ria UK

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ium

Slov

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Finl

and

Hun

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Bulg

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over 13 800 biogas plants and more than 7 400 Mwel of installed capacity in Europe in 2012

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Power from waste heat with ORC machinesResidual heat from biogas plants is typically used for space heating in farms, but still a large quantity of heat is often dispersed when no applications are possible at convenient distance from the plant. In Trechwitz, Germany, an 800

kW plant has been equipped with a 35kW Organic Rankine Cycle machine developed by ElectraTherm, which converts unused heat into additional power. The heat is provided by hot water (95°C) coming from the cooling of the internal combustion engines of the primary generator. The heat is then transferred to a working fluid which vaporizes and expands in a twin screw

power block, before being condensed again into liquid by an air cooled condenser.Thanks to this improvement, the plant is now able to generate 7% more electricity than before and has met the energy efficiency requirements to qualify for an extra bonus according to the German renewable energy law of 2012.

BIOGAS 2.0

Demand-oriented power productionUnlike solar and wind power whose production during the day is variable and re-latively unpredictable, biogas is a programmable renewable energy source. With proper adjustments, biogas plants can modulate their power output during the day, this helps to balance the pikes in power production when large PV or wind farms are fully working, which can lead to oversupply of electricity. In Klein Mecklesen, Naturenergie Osteraue GmbH is running an 837 kW plant which can modulate its production depending on the grid’s power demand. To achieve this the plant has been equipped by MT-Energie with a large gasometer to store biogas over-night. In this way the CHP is shut down at night for up to 8 hours and restarted at morning, when daytime electricity prices are 3-4 euro cents higher than nighttime. A water tank is also installed to store heat and use it overnight. In some cases, the grid operator can also automatically shut down the plant.Thanks to these improvements, the plant achieves higher revenues by selling the electricity when the price is hi-gher and receives an additional bonus for flexible ope-ration according to the German renewable energy law of 2012 (130 euro per kW installed per year, which equals to 28.000 euro per year).

Valorising residual heat with micro gas gridsIn Czech Republic, the city of Trebon hosts a 1 MWe biogas plant which was built with an innovative concept to maximize the use of waste heat. A

6.100 m3 plant was built by MT-Energie on the site of an alre-ady existing AD plant (170 kW) digesting slurry and other agricultural wastes from a local pig farm. The new plant is fed also with maize and grass silage. The biogas produ-ced is transported via a 4,5 km dedicated gas grid to the CHP unit, which is located in a SPA resort village in town. The heat from the CHP unit is then supplied to the resort for its high heating requirements throughout the year. This solution provides cheap, stable and clean energy for the resort while creating additional income and revenues for the pig farm.

The new biogas plant Trebon (Czech Republic). Source MT-Energie

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Increasing energy efficiency

This article is based on the report “Good practices and innovations in the biogas industry” published by the European Biogas Association in October 2013. Find the full report at www.european-biogas.eu

Flexible load power plant in Klein Meckelsen (Germany). Source MT-Energie

More biogas and less energy consumption for mixingAchieving a rapid degradation of fibers and lignocellulosic materials contained in substrates is a major bottleneck in anaerobic digestion. In Klostermansfeld, Germany, the Dutch life science company DSM has successfully applied a hydrolytic enzyme to pretreat substrate (maize, grass silage and grains) in the

primary tank of a biogas plant (834 kW), to improve biogas yield as well as substrate mixing properties.By using Methaplus 100® (the commercial name of the enzyme) the spe-cific energy production per dry ton of substrate has increased by 12%,

while the use of energy for stirring has decreased by 30% thanks to redu-ced viscosity of the substrate. This allowed the plant to achieve cost savings up to 45 euro per ton of fresh

matter while also reducing the amount of digestate to manage.

10 examples of technological improvementswhich can make biogas more efficient

Less maize more whole crop fiber substratesFiber based feedstock such as whole crop cereal silages (WCCS) are typically used as co-substrates together with more easily degradable matters such as starch fats or proteins (i.e. in manure). Without pre-treatment their percentage in the substrate mixture is usually not higher than 25% in order to avoid excessive viscosity and risks of scum layer formations in the tanks. In Zeven, Germany, a new enzyme mix named Axiase TM 100 was developed by DSM in collaboration with MT-Energie and Berlin Humboldt

University. The application of Axiase TM 100 to the sub-strate allowed to increase the percentage of whole

crop rye silage up to 60%. Thanks to this innovation it will

be possible to sensibly reduce the need for maize silage while preserving the methane yield of the substrate mixtures and redu-cing plants energy consumption for stirring.

ORC Machine in Trechwitz (Germany) - ElectraTherm 4

5

Enhancing biogas production with enzymes

Source DSM Biogas

Source DSM Biogas

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Biogas from hop silageIn Bavaria, the region of Hallertau is a major producer of hop for the brewing industry. Silage can be obtained by hop residues, which are traditionally spre-

ad onto the fields. In this region Schmack Biogas has built a 22.000 m3 plant specially designed to digest hop silage for biomethane. Hop sila-ge is collected among 170 farms and mechanically pre-treated before entering the digestion phase. The AD plant has 3

horizontal and 4 vertical tanks. The project was implemented by a joint venture between E.ON and

HVG, a large hop grower in the region. The biogas pro-duced is upgraded and injected into the gas grid.

Biogas from organic wasteIn Bridgnorth, Shropshire England, Swancote Energy Ltd. runs a 2 MWe biogas plant specially designed by MT-Energie to digest energy

crops together with organic and food waste (potato peel, yoghourt, sludge). The plant is equipped with a de-packing system to handle the food waste and a hygenization unit which processes the food waste at 70°C for 1 hour using residual heat from the CHP ge-nerator. Digestate is mechanically treated to separate the liquid and the solid phase, the latter one is spread onto fields as fertilizer. The plant provides a valuable service to local food industries and supermarkets as well as to the local community by allowing sensible savings in costs for landfill disposal of food waste.

Hop flowers

Oberlauterbach plant Schmack Biogas GmbH

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Using alternative feedstock

BIOGAS 2.0

Source BioCycle and MT-Energie

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Dry fermentation In Oshkosh, USA, German BIOFerm GmbH and BIOFerm Energy Systems implemented the first dry fermentation plant in U.S. The plant is located in the campus of the University of Wisconsin - Oshkosh, the digester has a volume of 2.900 m3 and is fed with landscape wa-

ste and organic waste from the local canteen and grocery store. Given the very high dry matter content of the substrates the plant required a special fermentation process. The

substrate is loaded with front loaders in a garage-style digester and is not pre-treated nor pumped or stirred. Besides the possibility to treat dry feedstock one major advantage of this system is a very low maintenance cost The biogas produ-ced is used in a CHP unit providing 8% of the electricity needs of the campus.

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Pre-treatment of dry feedstockIn Tongeren, Belgium Schmack Biogas has built a 2.8 MW biogas plant which can digest dry feedstock in large percentages (80% maize and 20% glycerine in the substrate mix) thanks to a pre-treatment hydrolysis digester named EUCO. Inside this horizontal axis tank a paddle agitator mixes solid feedstock with pre-fermented material, liquefying the feedstock before it gets into a second stage digester and finally to a gas-tight post digester. Thanks to the EUCO pre-treatment tank, more methane is produced, while less energy is used for stirring and high dry matter feedstock can

be digested without need for any liquids.EUCO digester Source Schmack Biogas

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Energy saving in mixing and smooth hydrolysis AD plants digesting manure or other liquid substrates with relatively low energy and dry matter content (< 10%) usually need large reactors with frequent and reliable stirring of the substrate with agitators or pumps, which generates a sensible demand of electricity to keep the process going. Effi-cient systems for mixing liquid substrates can help to reduce the volumes of manure and generate savings for the plant operator.In Shihoro, Hokkaido district of Japan, Streisal GmbH has installed an effi-cient agitator with specially designed propeller and low turning speed, in a small biogas plant (60 kWe 780 m3) digesting cow manure only. The mixer doesn't require the opening of the tanks for service work. This has resulted in sensibly lower operation and maintenance costs while achieving impro-ved mixing of the substrate in the tanks.

In Tannhausen, Germany efficient and powerful long-axis agitators with large pro-pellers and low controlled speed have been installed by Streisal GmbH in an existing 570 kW plant. The plant ini-tially had high operational and maintenance costs and low process efficiency due to the need of performing frequent adjustments of the mixing system. This required opening of the tanks which caused disturbance to the biological processes.Thanks to the installation of the new mixing system the plant has now improved it process efficiency and re-duced by 50% its power requirements for mixing and hydrolysis.

Streisal Maischebull®/Hydro-bull® agitator system for mixing pits and hydrolysis tanks

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Innovative plant design

Source BIOFerm Energy Systems

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Wolfgang Baaske, Bettina Lancaster | STUDIA, AustriaFlorian Gerlach | fiBL Projekte gmbh, germany

SUSTAINABLE BIogAS PRoDUCTIoN IN oRgANIC fARMINg

Clover grass is a resource for sustainable organic biogas production. Photo: agrarfoto

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Biogas is an important renewable energy source with impressive growth and installation rates in the EU. However, production of biogas from organic farms has not yet been sufficiently ex-ploited. The European project SUSTAINGAS

responds to the current lack of standards and information on biogas produced on organic farms. SUSTAINGAS aims at promoting sustainable biogas supply by position-ing sustainable biogas products from organic farming. The project will set a sustainable impetus to improve the market access and to increase the share of biogas plants in organic farming. Nine partners from seven European countries are contrib-uting to reach these objectives.What is sustainable organic biogas?

Organic biogas production combines renewable energy production and organic farming. Both are important con-cepts regarding sustainable development. At first glance, biogas production in organic agriculture is not very dif-

ferent from general agricultural biogas production: Bio-mass is fermented to produce energy; the digestate is used as organic fertiliser on the fields. A closer look, however, shows that organic biogas production has a high potential regarding sustainability and synergies with agricultural processes in organic systems. While effects vary widely

between individual projects, the context, structures and effects of biogas production on organic farms in general show a strongly synergistic interaction with organ-ic crop production and livestock husbandry.

In a SUSTAINGAS study, 40 organic farmers with biogas plants (or in a planning phase) were asked what they consider important for a biogas plant on an organic farm to be sustainable. For most farmers the following aspects were crucial: sustaining of soil quality, avoiding methane emissions, the composition of input ma-terials and economic feasibility. Other important issues in-cluded fair play for all people involved, health and safety issues, and the efficiency of gas production (see Figure 1).

[...] the context, structures and effects of biogas production on organic farms in general show a strongly synergistic interaction with organic crop produc-tion and livestock husbandry. [...]

sustainability

Figure 1. Issues for sustainable organic biogas production

Sustainment of soil quality

Avoiding methane emission

Composition of input materials in general

Economic feasibility of biogas plant on organic farm

Fair play for all people involved

Transportation distance of input materials

Degree of efficiency in gas production

Safety and health on the workplace biogas plant

Use of waste heat on farm or external

On-farm nitrogen cycle to increase harvest

Amount of input material from conventional farms

Contribution to regional power supply

Acceptance of biogas plants in the neighborhood

Avoiding competition to food and feed production

Acceptance of biogas plants by organic food

Very important Important Not so important Unimportant no answer percentages, n=40

What is important for a biogas plant on an organic farm in order to be sustainable?

Crucial

Important

Also important

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While all of these issues are undoubtedly relevant to sus-tainable biogas production, some aspects – like the origin and nature of the substrates – are closely related to the agri-cultural system (organic or non-organic) while for other fac-tors – e.g. health and safety issues – the agricultural system is less relevant. Based on a literature study and the above mentioned consultations with organic farmers, as well as with other experts, the SUSTAINGAS team derived some essential points for a description of organic biogas:

Biomass used for biogas generation mainly originates • from organic agriculture, organic food production and nature conservation material. Material from conven-tional agriculture is limited. Types of substrate include mainly catch crops, resi-• dues from animal husbandry or crop production, ma-terial from conservation areas and/or uncontaminated (free of GMO and heavy metals) biological residues from food processing or house-hold waste.The use of energy crops as • substrates is limited since or-ganic biogas aims to have a positive impact on food pro-duction, avoiding competition for land use. The digestate is used as an or-• ganic fertiliser in the organic farm’s own nutrient cy-cle. Organic biogas production aims to improve soil fertility in organic farming systems. A safe and efficient process with low emissions, • particularly of methane, is essential for the sustain-ability. Positive impacts are expected on water quality, con-• servation, and biodiversity.

What are the market drivers towards sustainable organic biogas in organic agriculture?

The area for organic farming in the European Union amounted to 9.5 million hectares in 2011 (EU-29) with an average annual growth rate of 7.3 % during the recent six years (2005–2011). More than five percent of agricul-tural land is managed with organic farming systems, in some countries like Austria, Sweden and Czech Republic even more than ten percent. Organic farming, originally conceived as a small niche, has developed into a power-ful sector of agriculture. Therefore, its synergies and also its competition with other agricultural activities (like biogas production) become increasingly important. The develop-ment of organic biogas production is not yet commensurate

with the volume of organic production. According to AE-BIOM (2012) there are about 7.100 biogas plants in opera-tion across Europe1. These figures reflect decentralised ag-ricultural plants, municipal solid waste, methanation plants, centralized codigestion and multi-products plants in the year 2010. Germany, the country with the most biogas plants in Europe and highest growth in biogas production, reports 7.500 biogas plants, out of which 190 are in organic farming (2.3%). In Austria, about 7 out of 360 biogas plants are in organic farming (1.9%). The total installed electrical capac-ity from biogas plants in organic farming in the European Union is still below 50 MW.

The total theoretical potential in the European Union for biogas plants supplied by organic farming amounts to roughly 4 GWel installed electrical capacity. Based on a reasonably expected continuous annual growth rate of 7.3 % for organic farming in the European Union, the total po-

tential will increase to almost 8 GWel until 2020. This is a conservative ap-proach as the trend towards organic farming and therefore the annual growth rate will rather increase in the European Union due to raising awareness of the population.

Broken down by country, there is no direct relationship between dif-

fusion of biogas plants and diffusion of organic farming. Though both industries address environmental targets and both depend on public support, their penetration does not correlate. The data do not reflect a general underlying policy strategy (on a European level) that applies to both, organic farming and biogas production.

Generally, organic farmers are highly interested in bi-ogas production. A survey on 600 organic farmers across the countries represented in SUSTAINGAS project shows that about half of the respondents is interested in operating a biogas plant. 19 % clearly answer with yes. There is a positive correlation with the size of farms, both in hec-tares farm land as well as in livestock units. Most of or-ganic farmers interested in operating a biogas plant would cooperate with other people. Experiences in Austria e.g. show, that these people would not only be other farmers (as material suppliers, operators, investors) but also end users (neighbors, heat users, fuel consumers, investors, promoters), 6 % commit to a high willingness to operate a plant within the next ten years. These commitments differ largely from country to country.

Heat and electricity generation are the dominant direct

[...] Organic farming provides a significant potential of about 5 GWel. This potential has not been addressed sufficiently so far. [...]

Note 1: Statistics of 2013 by the European Biogas Association estimated 13.800 plants in 2012. Editor's note.

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sustainability

purposes for using biogas on organic farms. But vehicle fuelling is an appealing alternative (yet not implemented on organic farms), especially because many organic farm-ers are interested in becoming self-sufficient in energy supply. Besides using biogas for heating purposes on their farm or private home, drying purposes are important to support further processing of organic and other products. Further, a most important effect is the increase of harvest yields by on-farm usage of processed materials as a ferti-lizer, ensuring also maintaining of soil quality.What hindrances are to overcome?

In order to address those potentials, several hindrances are to overcome. The survey on organic farmers reports financial constrains and little knowledge about best prac-tice examples as the most dominant hindrances for a bi-ogas plant on their farm. These hindrances are dominant in all countries, in some also a lack of knowledge. But the

countries differ strongly with respect to the relevance of hindrances in total. Bulgaria, Poland and Spain are most affected from hindrances, Austria and Denmark less, and Germany least. Best practice examples are demanded sig-nificantly, even more than access to knowledge. Regula-tions of organic farming associations on biogas are the least important hindrance factor, as organic farmers state in the European average. Nevertheless there are important national differences. In Spain and Poland organic regula-tions are more critical than in other countries. In Germany, only a minority of about 9 % regard regulations of organic farming associations on biogas as being critical.

A broader discussion on biogas in organic farming is encouraged. Members of organic farming associations should clarify and find consensus on standards. On a Eu-ropean level organic farming associations could transfer regulations’ experiences.

Register for our free Webinars and Workshops

We invite you to learn more about advantages and challenges of biogas in organic farming as well as about SUSTAINGAS project results during a series of workshops and webinars.

The Live-Webinars will deliver a compact overview of possibilities and requirements of a sustainable production of biogas within Organic Farming:

Language Date

Bulgarian 13 Nov 2013

Danish 29 Jan 2014

English 21 Jan 2014

Spanish 17 Dec 2013

In the regional Workshops you will receive a deeper insight to the current market situation and essential sustainability aspects of Organic Biogas.

Language Date

Danish 13-14 Mar 2014

German 30 Jan 2014 (Schloss Puchberg, Wels, Austria) 6-7 Nov 2013 (Würzburg, Germany)

Polish Feb 2014

Spanish 14 March 2014 Pontevedra

More information or registration: http://sustaingas.eu/trainings.html

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Project's full name: Enhancing sustainable biogas production in organic farming

Project duration: April 2012 to March 2015

Partners: IFOAM-EU (Belgium), FEA (Bulgaria), Organic Denmark, Ecofys (Germany), FIBL (Germany), RENAC (Germany), FUNDEKO (Poland), PROTECMA (Spain)

Coordinator: STUDIA Studienzentrum für international Analysen (Austria)

Website: www.sustaingas.eu

Acknowledgement and disclaimerThe project SUSTAINGAS Enhancing sustainable biogas pro-duction in organic farming has received funding from the Eu-ropean Union and is supported by Intelligent Energy Europe. The sole responsibility for the content of this publication lies with the authors. It does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the European Union. Neither the EACI nor the European Com-mission are responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.

Biogas from organic farms or ecological enterprises is still relatively unknown. Promotional activities therefore are very important for organic farmers who engage in bi-ogas production. Organic farming associations and green movement networks will definitely have to play an impor-tant role in making customers aware of this issue. 65 % of the organic farmers claim, that organic farmers’ associa-tions should be informing and making customers aware of this issue. 56 % of the organic farmers expect an engage-ment of biogas interest groups. Both type of associations seem to be similar important for promotion of sustainable biogas from organic farming, but organic farmers slightly rely more on their own associations. The contribution of the SUSTAINGAS project

SUSTAINGAS aims at promoting sustainable biogas supply by positioning sustainable biogas products from organic farming. So far, the project has achieved several objectives:

Sustainable organic biogas has been defined, and a • market study was carried out;A tool for evaluating the economic interaction be-• tween biogas and organic food production has been created;Guidelines on standards of sustainable organic bi-• ogas production have been elaborated, but are under discussion;A handbook as well as a booklet with a selection of • best examples in Europe is under development.

In the upcoming months several workshops, live webi-nars and online-trainings will be promoted across Europe. All materials, folders, studies, tools, newsletters etc. es-tablished so far are free for download under the project website.

Conclusions - so farSustainable biogas production is an interesting option for

many organic farmers. It contributes to a sustainable energy production, provides incomes and stabilizes the organic farm’s own nutrient cycle. But there are still hindrances to overcome, mainly due to the technology, information, the economy and public regulations and funding. Efforts to pro-mote organic biogas have to take into account the farmers’ questions, concerns and interests.

Biogas associations should cooperate with organic farm-ing associations, to help organic farmers with their prob-lems and plans, as well as to promote organic biogas pro-duction publicly. In some countries information lacks have to be tackled, due to the relatively low penetration of biogas production and organic agriculture. The political will has to improve, and the business climate should be more stable and predictable.

Legal framework (including feed-in-tariffs) and state funding should be more reliable, so that the framework for organic farmers and their biogas production is clear. Also the issue of using organic waste materials should be taken into account when considering the potential of biogas pro-duction on organic farms. Alternative markets for biogas should be considered more, like feeding into the national gas grid or regional use of biogas as fuel. For opening up these options to organic farmers, biogas upgrading and grid insertion technology will have to be further developed. Downscaled or new small-scale solutions will have to be improved. There is a high need for good practice examples focused on small scale solutions (30-40 kW). Good practice examples should be specific for each country.

More at www.sustaingas.eu

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A relevant percentage of the organic waste fraction is pro-duced by caterings, canteens, large restaurants, hotels, mar-kets, supermarkets, fisheries and other small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the agro-food sector. The global amount of organic waste produced by European agro-food SMEs in 2006 was 239,871,940 tonnes. Such a huge amount of waste needs to be efficiently man-aged in order to maximise both en-vironmental and economic benefits.

According to Directive 2008/98/EC, organic waste disposal at land-fill sites won’t be possible anymore in Europe while incineration is not recommended due to the high wa-ter content of the organic fraction of municipal solid waste. On the other side, the profitability of an AD system is largely influenced by the disposal cost of the waste and the selling price of electricity to the grid.

In this regard, on-site AD systems which produce heat to be used locally (e.g. for heating or hot water production) are more likely a profitable way to treat organic wastes: they avoid collection costs and at the same time they are not strictly reliant on the electricity feed-in-tariff.Project development

Starting from these considerations, a consortium of Euro-pean partners, is working on a new solution to treat organic waste on site: an AD machine at SME scale (1 m3 to 50 m3) designed to treat a large range of organic wastes, reducing capital and operating costs. The ORION system is composed of a waste conditioning system, a thermo-regulated diges-tion tank, a gas holder and a gas-burning engine/generator, in case electricity is to be produced. Optimum reliability will be ensured by advanced control tools and sensors, so that no specific operator will be necessary on site.

In parallel, optimal efficiency would be ensured by nanos-tructured surfaces promoting the formation of methanogenic

biofilms. This solution maximises bacterial growth and in-creases waste throughput in the digester. As a result, 40-90% of the organic waste is converted into biogas. Finally, the process produces a digestate which may be separated into liquid and solid components, to be used respectively as fer-tilizer and as soil conditioner. The digester is designed to be

very cost-effective for end-users, decreasing their organic waste treatment costs (storage, trans-port, landfill or incineration) and increasing on-site hygiene condi-tions. Furthermore the energy pro-duced trhough waste valorisation can increase SME autonomy and profitability.

This project is supported by the European Commission under the Research for SME associations

Theme of the 7th Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development. It started in august 2012 and it will last for 3 years.Partners Consortium

An highly qualified interdisciplinary group of research centres is working on the pilot design and AD testing with various waste qualities and quantities. Some European and National association groups representing the targeted sectors (fishery, aquaculture, as well as the agro-food sector) coop-erate as project partners in order to make the ORION system suitable to their real needs and coherent with the European legal and economic context. Perspectives

Bio-waste could be regulated more strictly on EU-level: stricter requirements for EU bio-waste producers as well as increasing differentiation targets could be implemented, pushed by the pioneer Member States who set ambitious green policies. The trend is anyhow favourable to an ex-panding market for the type of equipment being developed in the ORION project.

Valeria Magnolfi | European Biomass Industry AssociationClara Uggè | ETA-florence Renewable Energies

organic waste management by a small-scale innovative automated system of anaerobic digestion

www.project-orion.eu

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Melanie Arndt | Department of biogas and mobility C.A.R.M.E.N. e.v.

MoBILE hEAT SToRAgESA wAy TowARDS EffICIENCy IN wASTE hEAT USAgE?

In 2013 there are around 7,800 biogas plants in Germany that produce electricity and heat. The installed electric power amounts to 3,530 MW [Fachverband Biogas. Branchenzahlen 2012.]. While the electricity is fed into the national grid, the heat is mainly a by-product that

is often wasted. The sensibility for this situation has risen among the owners of biogas plants. Still there are some bi-ogas plants that have not yet developed a sustainable use of the heat. Especially in some rural areas there is not enough demand for heat. Mobile heat storage systems could create a solution as they allow transporting the heat for longer dis-tances with fewer losses than in the established heat grids.

The problemMost biogas plants in Germany use the produced gas in

combined heat and power stations (CHP) on-site. Usually the biogas plants run with full power throughout the year. The engine is combined with a generator that produces the electricity that is fed into the electric grid. The engine needs cooling. This is one of the sources for waste heat. The other one is exhaust heat. Heat exchangers allow the external use of this heat. The proportion of electric to heat power depends on the size – the installed power – of the CHP and the ap-plied technique. For an average estimation the proportion of electricity:heat can be assumed as 1:1.

Mobile PCM heat storage unit. Credit: Fraunhofer UMSICHT

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There is a series of limitations and specifics in the use of waste heat from biogas plants. The usable heat can-not rise above certain temperatures without doing serious harm to the engine. For example, if the exhaust gas is cooled too much, corrosive gases can condensate. There-fore the usable heat has temperatures of about 80 to 95 degrees. The digestion of the input materials proceeds on temperatures between 37 and 55 degrees. That is why the biogas plants need a share of the produced heat to facili-tate the digestion process. Naturally this share is higher in the cold periods of the year. But this fact contradicts some applications for the heat, e.g. for heating purposes in private housings. A further point is that heat cannot be transported without losses. Therefor it is not possible to build long heat transportation grids to reach far destina-tions.The solution

A possible solution is a mobile heat storage system. The stored heat can thus be transported on vehicles over long distances almost without losses. In contrast to hot water as a storage medium these systems use latent heat stor-age devices (see figure 2). The principle behind that is the change of phase at a constant temperature which absorbs or releases high amounts of energy. Of course water does that too – freeze and melt, steam and condensate – but not at fitting temperature levels. Therefore other so-called phase change materials (PCM) come into interest. Salts for example, like sodium nitrate, are currently under ex-amination. The melting temperature of sodium nitrate is about 58 degrees. The enthalpy of fusion is 260 kj/kg.

So when looking for adequate PCM, one has to consider the phase change temperature and the specific enthalpy of change. Further important qualities of PCM are low prices for the materials, high density and being classified as non-

Figure 2. Principle of sensible and latent heat storage

hazardous. Especially the last aspect is crucial considering the transport of the storage systems via street. This should be possible without any special security measures.

Beside latent heat storage materials heat adsorbers like zeolites can be used. At the present time zeolites are used in dishwashers for example. These materials are able to adsorb heat within their crystalline structure. In order to unload the zeolite wet air is necessary. Therefore this system is expedient for applications using air like drying purposes.In the praxis

Currently, the first pilot projects with mobile heat stor-age systems are running. One is located in Friedberg, where the heat of a waste combustion plant is used to heat a school. The bifa Umweltinstitut in Augsburg has initial-ized this venture. The Fraunhofer Umsicht in Sulzbach-Rosenberg has done research for another project where the waste heat of a biogas plant is used. In both cases sodium nitrate is the PCM. In the Fraunhofer project two insulated containers weighing 25 tonnes each are used. One container can store about 1.500 to 2.000 kWh. They are loaded at the biogas plant with temperatures of about 95 degrees. This takes about twelve hours. Then the con-tainer is transported to a central heat station. Unloading one of the containers takes about 18 hours. The unload temperature is at around 40 degrees and the usable tem-perature for the heating systems is at about 50 degrees. Therefore the consumers heating system needs to fit to low temperature heating. In this project some residential houses, an office building and a store house are powered. Here, a well-known problem appears again: There is not much demand of heat during the summer period. But to be economically viable the containers need a high operating grade. In this project this problem was circumvented by

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installing a wood drying system. The transport distance is five kilometers and about 200 cycles a year can be real-ized. One important outcome of the research is that the energy to drive the containers from the biogas plant to the central heat station makes up about one percent of the consumers heat demand. This proofs that a mobile heat transport on the road can be efficient.

The Bavarian government with the ministry of agricul-ture is currently supporting another project with the same technique in Heilsbronn and has set up a program with investment grants in order to obtain more reliable data about mobile heat storage. To gain this financial support, the heat must be provided by a biogas plant. Further it is necessary that the mobile heat storage system is proofed to work in real applications. Therefore this program is not for research projects in labs but for demonstrating new techniques or their new applications in practice. There are also some preconditions for the use of the transported heat. In the Bavarian program the utilization for drying wood for the energetic use is not considered ecologically worthwhile.The crucial points

There are a number of aspects that need to be fulfilled to make mobile heat storage a proper solution. As described above the heat consumers system must be able to run with relatively low temperatures. If other PCM are applied, still the heating system and the melting temperatures need to fit. The heat demand should extent to the sum-mertime, too. Consumers like bathes or hospitals for ex-

ample have a high demand during the warmer periods of the year. Addition-ally, a second source of heat needs to be available. One point is that the pikes in the consumers heat demand can-not be supplied by the mobile system. The reason here again is the operating grade as these pikes only appear for a few hours in one year. The mobile heat storage system needs to be configured for the basic load of the heat demand. The other point is that a reserve heating system at the central heating station is obligatory. There can be a lot of fac-tors to hinder the mobile heat delivery, for example a breakdown at the biogas plant, at the storage system itself, at the transport vehicle, congestions on the transport way or bad weather condi-

tions. Further, the central heating station needs to have enough space for the containers to be parked and un-loaded. The transport distance should not be too short. In this case a heating grid is more suitable. But the distance should not be too far either in order to avoid high trans-portation costs. The studies showed that five kilometers is an appropriate distance.

Besides this a lot of organizational aspects have to be cared of. The most important one is to find a reliable driver for the transport vehicle. The driving times could possi-bly be during nighttime or on holidays. The driver should be able to handle the docking station for the container to the central heating station and to the biogas plant. As speaking of agricultural biogas plants this means that the owners themselves will not be able to execute this alone. Further some legal aspects concerning the access to the central heat station, the biogas plant or the delivery and payoff of the heat have to be settled carefully.

As mobile heat storage is a relatively new development for biogas plants there is not enough long-term data to judge its economic feasibility. One question is for exam-ple the life expectancy of the PCMs.

Further information

Fraunhofer UMSICHThttp://www.umsicht-suro.fraunhofer.de//

FSAVE Solartechnik GmbH http://www.fsave.de/

bifa Umweltinstitut GmbH http://www.bifa.de/

Bayerisches Zentrum für Angewandte Energieforschung e.V. (ZAE Bayern) http://www.zae-bayern.de/

Figure 3. The loading station of a mobile heat storage system

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SEAwEEDS foR BIogAS PRoDUCTIoN

More than 400 different species of macro algae – com-monly called seaweed, grow in Danish waters. Seaweed is a resource that can be used use in a number of ways, among others for sustainable energy, pet foods and for a cleaner ma-rine environment. This was the conclusion in the recently completed project “Algae for biogas in Central Denmark Region“.

The main objective of the project was to find the best ways to get the highest possible biogas yield from seaweed. In 2010 an algae cultivation pilot plant was built in Grenaa by AlgaeCenter Denmark and this was a central location for research, development and dissemination of the project.

The results of the project are unmistakable: seaweeds are suitable for biogas production – and for many other purpos-es. ”We gained extensive new knowledge from the project”, says Annette Bruhn, project manager and researcher from Aarhus University. “First, we documented that there are good opportunities for using seaweed to produce biogas. Secondly, we also found that the residue from biogas pro-duction is suitable as fertilizer and that seaweed efficiently absorb nutrients from manure and wastewater and CO2 from

flue gas. Therefore, seaweed can be used as a biofilter.”Algae’s cell walls contain cellulose as like as land-based

plants, but the content is generally lower in algae. Unlike plant biomass, algae cell walls contain no lignin

but instead various other carbohydrates, for example algi-nates in brown algae and ulvan in green algae. The biogas potentials of relevant species of algae were studied and es-pecially Laminaria digitata (oarweed) are very promising. Most promising is the fact that the results from the project reveal that no pretreatment of the algae is necessary prior to biogas production.

“Work on the project Algae for biogas in Central Denmark Region has resulted in a multitude of activities. We have been in contact with several companies in Denmark, Scan-dinavia and Europe, all of which are interested in embarking on the development of seaweed. We very much look forward to being able to help these businesses with the knowledge gained among others in this project”“says Lars Nikolaisen, Head of Section of Marine Biomass, Danish Technological Institute. – Karin Svane Bech

More at http://tinyurl.com/nwujgd7

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Manure is a waste from agriculture polluting the air and the sea! No, no! Manure is a valuable resource which can fertilize crops and create green energy and green jobs! Opinions on ma-nure differ – and both of the opinions above

may be right under certain conditions. However, few peo-ple remember that in fact they themselves produce manure – indirectly, of course - if you are not a vegan, by creating the market for different animal products from food and lea-ther to horse riding lessons. So regardless of the opinion on manure, we have a common responsibility to handle it with proper care and without harming the environment.

Animal husbandry delivering meat, milk and eggs is an important part of the agriculture in the Baltic Sea Region. For increased animal production, high amounts of protein feed has been and is being imported into the region. While only a part of the nutrients in the feed are converted into consumable animal products and even less are exported out of the region, a surplus of nutrients is created. This surplus is found in different wastes and by-products, the main by-product of animal production being manure. Today, 187 million tons of manure is annually produced from cattle, pig and poultry in the Baltic Sea Region. Most of it can be found in Poland, Denmark and the northern German states with coastline to the Baltic Sea. Also the intensive livestock production in Leningrad Oblast of Russia produces high amounts of manure.The manure challenge addressed by Baltic Manure

The manure management chain is, in fact, initiated with animal feed and excretion. By optimising the amount of car-bon and nutrients fed to the animal, less of them are also excreted into manure. This is an effective way to reduce the environmental impact of animal production. However, as manure is inevitably still produced and needs to be handled,

the project Baltic Manure has mainly focused on the actual manure containing steps in the management chain: animal housing, manure collection, processing, storage and field application. Among these, manure processing is the latest addition into the management chain. It means different tech-nological solutions to make enhanced use of manure energy content (carbon) and nutrients while simultaneously mini-mising emissions. Manure processing technologies may be simple, such as mechanical separation or manure cooling, or include several process steps for instance from biogas pro-duction to struvite precipitation and membrane separation. Basically, the project Baltic Manure seeks to improve the understanding of cost-effective and environmentally sound manure management, to recommend better solutions to enhance utilisation of manure as a resource and thereby to reduce harmful outputs to air and water, and ultimately to involve and stimulate business involvement in these good solutions. Baltic Manure is all about finding the intrinsic val-ues in manure (carbon, nutrients) and turning these values into marketable products.Biogas: a key manure solution

There are different types of manure from slurry to dif-ferent solid manures. The ratio of slurry and solid manure varies significantly in the Baltic Sea Region and affects the technological choices for manure management. For in-stance, in Denmark 80% of all manure is slurry, while in Poland 90-95% of manure is solid.

Solid manure can be processed by incineration and ther-mal gasification in order to retrieve its energy content, to re-cycle phosphorus and to reduce the amount of manure sig-nificantly. It can also be composted to preserve the nutrients and give the carbon as humus back to the soils. However, manure incineration is a controversial issue in most Baltic countries and practiced only in Sweden. Thermal gasifica-tion is its developmental stage yet and composting does not

Sari Luostarinen | MTT Agrifood Research finlandKnud Tybirk | Agro Business Park, Denmark

BIogAS PoTENTIALS IN ThE BALTIC SEAREgIoN

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make use of the manure energy content. All these technolo-gies also lose all or most of the valuable nitrogen in manure. Thus, Baltic Manure cannot at present recommend these handling technologies. The most recommendable and best available manure processing technology is biogas technol-ogy (anaerobic digestion). Baltic Manure has shown this makes the most value out of manure. It allows simultane-ously to utilise manure energy content as heat, electricity or biomethane (replacement to natural gas, transport fuel), to recycle manure nutrients along with nutrients from other organic materials, to enhance reuse of nitrogen, and to miti-gate emissions to air and water.

However, biogas is not a ‘stand-alone’- technology and in every case the combination of choices in the entire manure management chain should be judged from an economic, technical and environmental point of view. Baltic Manure has made quite a few recommendations on how to improve manure utilisation in biogas plants (see box).Manure biogas potentials

Baltic Manure concludes that biogas is the best solution for manure energy use today. Yet it is calculated that only around 2% of all cattle, pig and poultry manure in the Baltic Sea region (excluding the German states on the shore) is presently used for biogas – with a large variation between countries. Subsequently, the unutilised potential for manure biogas is immense.

The annual theoretical energy potential of all this manure is 38-74 TWh (137-266 PJ) as biogas, but obviously not all manure can be collected and used for biogas. With the as-sumption that only larger farms (over 100 livestock units) have a true possibility to build biogas plants, the potential is still 17-35 TWh (61-126 PJ; Luostarinen 2013). Failing to harness this potential leaves a significant amount of renew-able energy currently unutilised.

Thus, the project has formulated a Baltic Manure VI-SION for manure energy: 25% of all manure should be used for biogas by 2025.

While the German states on the shore of the Baltic Sea may already have reached the vision, quite a few obstacles can be found in most other Baltic Sea countries to fulfil this ambition. Let us illustrate this with two cases.Finland

A total of 16 million tons of cattle, pig and poultry ma-nure is produced each year in Finland. The location of ani-mals and thus manure was studied using the statistics on animal amounts in Finland (Figure 1). It was found that nearly half of the Finnish manure is solid, a manure type

Recommendations for manure based biogas

Farm-specific business plan for investments and • benefits should be made before deciding to build a biogas plant – to ensure its economical base.The right digestion technology should be chosen • depending on the manure type to be digested – the most mature technologies are for slurry.Technologies for digesting solid manure should be • developed or co-digestion with slurry promoted – including technologies for pre-treating to improve degradation and thus biogas production.Strict methane and ammonia emission mitigation is • necessary after digesting manure for biogas not to jeopardize the environmental benefit of biogas. This could be:

- post-digestion tank and covered storage with biogas collection ensures minimal methane emissions - soil injection or acidification in field applica-tion ensures that the high ammonium nitrogen content in the digestate is directed to the crops.

Co-substrates for improving energy production of • slurry digestion and to enhance overall nutrient re-cycling should preferably be:

- manure-derived, such as source-separated solid manure, deep litter or mechanically separated solid fraction of slurry, and/or - other agricultural and societal wastes without uses as feed or food.

The co-substrate use of annual energy crops, such • as maize, should be carefully considered and mini-mized due to their environmental drawbacks. Biogas usage – heat, electricity and/or biomethane • - should be fit into the national and regional energy strategy.Cost-effective small scale upgrading technology • from biogas to biomethane should be developed.

A biogas plant in Finland

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produced especially on smaller farms. Also, most of the cat-tle manure is located in the regions of North Savo and Os-trobothnia, while most of pig and poultry manure is located in the South-Western Finland.

Despite wide interest in manure-based biogas in Finland, only approximately 18 000 tons of manure is being digested in 2013. The main obstacle is profitability. The investment in a biogas plant is high and the subsidies available inef-fective. Smaller farm-scale plants can get only 15-30% of investment support, while feed-in tariff for the electric-ity produced form biogas is totally excluded from biogas plants with less than 100 kVA of efficiency. Manure is not directed into large biogas plants either, since the digestate from these plants is not legally considered manure anymore and the farmer cannot spread as much of it as raw manure, which is given a exemption for spreading volumes (kg phosphorus per ha). It is also difficult to find uses for the heat produced, especially on cattle farms, and thus part of the energy is not given a proper value.

Central Denmark RegionDenmark has the ambition that 50% of

manure is treated for energy by 2020 – but a more realistic level is probably 25% by 2020 (today less than 10% is digested). The density of animal husbandry in Den-mark is predominantly in the Western re-gions, in Northern, Western and Southern Jutland. Slurry is the predominant manure form and 22 larger cooperative biogas plans are running in 2013 with quite a few more under planning.

The Central Denmark Region covers approximately 1/3 of the Danish manure (Figure 2). Large cooperative biogas plants have the advantages of economy of scale and professional management, but they also give quite a challenge for logistics and for finding suitable loca-tions for the large industrial plants in the countryside near the biomass resources. Planning and permitting takes a long time and although the Danish parliament has agreed on higher subsidies, very few new plants have been constructed in the last ten years.

Biogas is estimated to be able to cover some 60 PJ (approximately 17 TWh) or

10% of total Danish energy consumption by 2030. Ma-nure in total is calculated to produce something like 20-25 PJ (5.6-6.9 TWh) out of this. The rest of the biogas will be produced from agricultural and societal wastes and some modest share of energy crops. Thus it can be optimisti-cally foreseen by the known projects that Denmark could reach 15 PJ (4.2 TWh) of biogas production, if all projects succeed – perhaps by 2020-22.Conclusions

Biogas is part of a solution for optimal manure manage-ment in the Baltic Sea Region – providing benefits for renewable energy targets and nutrient recycling as well as emission mitigation. Many opportunities are there – along with many obstacles to remove on the way to a more sus-tainable manure management.

The project Baltic Manure has shown that biogas can become one important way of creating new rural develop-ment and contribute to fulfil steps towards a more sustain-able agriculture in the Baltic Sea Region.

Figure 1. Amount of solid manure and slurry in the Finnish regions

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Figure 2. The map of Central Denmark Region shows all existing farm scale biogas plants in 2012 (blue triangles) and larger cooperative plants (dot with a circle indicating the maximum economically viable driving distance for transporting slurry). Colours indicate animal density in Livestock Units/hectare.

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The Baltic Manure Project

The Baltic Sea is polluted by excess nutrients, resulting in algae blooms and “dead” sea beds. A large part of the current nutrient load derives from agriculture, via emissions into air and water. The loss of nutrients to the air and into the sea is often related to intensive animal husbandry with large quantities of nutrient-rich, poorly utilized manure.

The project Baltic Manure (Baltic Forum for Innovative Technologies for Sustainable Manure Management) addresses this challenge. Manure nutrients should be acknowledged as a resource and valorized by both animal and crop farmers as fertilisers. The efforts to optimize agricultural nutrient cycles for farming in the BSR by the use of the right manure han-dling technologies also create jobs, business, wealthy farmers and a cleaner environment.

Baltic Manure is a Flagship Project in the Action Plan of the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region and co-financed by Interreg Baltic Sea Region Programme. It involves 18 project partners from 8 countries with MTT Agrifood Research Fin-land as the lead partner. See more about the project at www.balticmanure.eu.

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BIogAS IN DEvELoPMENTSarah Kent | Biogas group Coordinator - hEDoN household Energy Network

Heousehold energy has always been at the heart of human development but our changing climate is raising serious questions and challenges regard-ing appropriate fuel. With an increase in the fre-quency and magnitude of hydro-meteorological

disasters linked to climate change and the corresponding human and environmental impacts, building community resilience has become imperative. Establishing clean, se-cure and sustainable household energy is a key concern for all nations and more so in those where options are restrict-ed by poverty.

One of the major factors in determining a degree of com-fort and security in any household is the availability of a sustainable supply of cooking fuel. The current reality for developing nations is that firewood is the most commonly available household fuel with alarming implications for human health, the environment, and natural CO2 sequestra-tion. Although there are many fuel-efficient stoves on the market, there is a growing need for methods of generating energy that don’t compromise health, deplete forests, or in-crease the burden of rising fuel costs.

A potential alternative to conventional fuel types is bi-ogas produced by the anaerobic fermentation of organic matter including kitchen waste, animal dung and human excrement. Composed largely of methane and carbon dioxide, biogas can be burned in a gas stove and where sufficient gas is produced, used for lighting or to generate electricity. The residual sludge from the digestion process is rich in nutrients and makes an excellent soil fertilizer.

Biogas is widely used throughout South Asia and parts of Africa with household or community digesters provid-ing sufficient methane for cooking. Where culture permits, digesters are linked to latrines providing an integrated sani-tation and energy system. By this method pathogens are safely contained and converted into an organic fertilizer rich in nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium and valuable as an asset to local food production or re-forestation.

One of the primary benefits of cooking with biogas is the reduction in smoke related diseases. In 2006 the World Health Organisation identified a number of conditions di-rectly related to smoke in their study Fuel for Life, House-hold Energy and Health. These included acute respiratory infections, lung cancer, tuberculosis and asthma. A tech-nology that enables smoke free cooking will have wide-ranging benefits from improved health to environmental gains.

Low cost digesters can make biogas available to house-holds and communities in rural areas where income is low provided that the technology is supported by appropriate training and management. The choice of digester type will depend on various factors such as average temperature, al-titude and available materials. A number of digesters have already gained popularity.Polythene Tube (PT) digester

This is one of the most basic types of digester made of flexible polythene tubing, plastic pipes and rubber straps. PT digesters have been used successfully in Costa Rica and the Bolivian highlands. At high altitudes, in regions with

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low ambient temperatures, it is possible to produce biogas by using a black digester bag and constructing a clear poly-thene roof to take effect as greenhouse allowing the digester to act as a solar collector. Conversely, in hot regions the bag digester needs to be shaded. Viewed over the longer term, however, PT digesters may be more costly having an average lifespan of two years due to the fragile nature of polythene tubing. The average gas yield of a 7.2m3 digester is 1.9m3 or sufficient for 12 cooking and lighting hours per day. Fixed Dome digester

This type of digester is widely used in rural China and In-dia where it is known as Deenbandhu, literally “poor man’s friend”. Construction is simply a pit lined with bricks and mortar and capped with concrete. A latrine can be situated

adjacent to the digester enabling human waste to be slu-ced directly into the pit. Other manures and kitchen waste are first mixed with water then added through a separate inlet. The digester volume typically varies between 8m3

and 15m3.In South India, where this type of system is common,

financial savings on chemical fertiliser add to the benefits as does the approximate 40% reduction in the need for ir-rigation water for crops due to improved soil structure from the use of digester sludge as an organic fertilizer.Portable converted HDPE water tank digester

With a capacity of 1000 litres this portable digester is well suited to urban settings where kitchen waste can be converted to energy. The system, developed by members

PT Biogas digester Insulated PT digester greenhouse (Images: J. Marti-Herrero (CIMNE), Bolivia, 2007)

Fixed dome digester (Image: Institute of Energy, Hanoi, Vietnam, 2002)

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of the Appropriate Rural Technology Institute, can be con-structed from pre-existing containers that are widely avail-able. It is estimated that families using this system halve their dependency on LPG and Kerosene. FRP Floating Dome digester

This digester type is constructed from pre-cast ferro-cement with a floating dome collector made from Fibre Reinforced Plastic (FRP). Although this is arguably the most costly of the digesters discussed here, it is quick to install and can be sized to accommodate the sanitation and organic waste and wastewater disposal needs of up to 200 people (25m3). Designed and produced by BIOTECH in Kerala, South India, plants of this type are currently used in around 12000 homes, 220 institutions and 19 munici-pal sites. The larger installations produce enough biogas to generate electricity in addition to cooking gas. Typically, this type of system runs on organic municipal and human waste rather than animal waste and is therefore well suit-ed to urban settlements. The digester can also be situated above ground making it a viable option for flood-prone re-gions or areas where the topography does not easily allow for soil excavation.

Wastewater collected with the effluent can be recycled back into the digester reducing the water demand and mak-ing this a viable technology for regions with low annual rainfall. Its also worth noting that waste-water from do-mestic digesters can be filtered through gravels and safely used for irrigation.How can biogas aid progress on the Millennium Development Goals?

The MDGs were derived from global poverty reduc-tion aims set forth in the UN Millennium Declaration. A target for achievement has been set for the year 2015 and progress is monitored by UNDP. If these goals are taken as a standard for global development then surely the provision of clean, affordable household energy will significantly aid their progress. Domestic biogas, for example, can yield the following benefits:

1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hungerFinancial savings on the purchase of domestic fuel• Increased agricultural yield with free organic ferti-• lizerImproved health and productivity by reducing respi-• ratory illness

Constructing a Deenbandhu digester tank, India (Image: Ashden Awards, 2007)

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BIOTECH plant at a school in Trivandrum, India (Image: Ashden Awards, 2007)

2. Achieve universal primary educationReduction in time spent collecting firewood allowing • more time for educationBiogas lamps can enable study in the home after dark•

3. Promote gender equality and empower womenAlleviation of drudgery in firewood collection mak-• ing time for education and employmentInvolvement of women in the management of house-• hold/community energy

4. Reduce child mortalityReduction in indoor smoke pollution and related dis-• easesProtection of unborn children from smoke pollution • helping to prevent stillbirthReduction in burns from open fires •

5. Improve maternal healthReduction in chronic respiratory illnesses caused by • smoke inhalationReduced risk of prolapse caused by carrying heavy • loads of firewood

6. Combat HIV / AIDS, malaria and other diseasesSubstantially lower levels of air pollution help to re-• duce respiratory diseases Processing organic waste to reduce pathogens and the • mosquito population

7. Ensure environmental sustainabilityReduction in rate of deforestation and related soil ero-• sion

Improved natural CO2 sequestration as forests are al-• lowed to flourishDecrease in GHG emissions from livestock and cook-• ingIncreased soil fertility from enhanced agricultural • practices

8. Develop a global partnership for developmentIncrease food and fuel security and reduced depend-• ency on external aidImprove opportunities for trading by increasing local • agriculture.

It seems that sustainable household energy systems have a key role to play in the future of successful international development. Community scale energy programmes can improve health and local economy. The challenges of cli-mate change and natural resource depletion may yet spur positive global changes in the ways that cleaner, renewable energy is sourced and delivered. The author would like to thank HEDON Household Energy Network www.hedon.info , Jaime Marti Herrero CIMNE and the Ashden Awards www.ashdenawards.org for information and images used in the preparation of this article.

For further information on household energy in developing nations visit The Household Energy Network www.hedon.info

HEDON also host a Biogas group on Linkedin http://www.linkedin.com/groups/HEDON-Biogas-4765328/about

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40Two biogas digestor bags filling with biogas in Santa Rosillo, Amazone region, Peru.

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BIogAS TEChNoLogy foR A BEAUTIfUL woRLD

Sandra Bos, Winfried Rijssenbeek, Machteld Speets | fACT foundation, The Netherlands

Over the past few months, FACT Foundation, Prac-tical Action UK, HIVOS and ETC Energy have developed the Global Alliance for Productive Bi-ogas (GAPB). The aim is to alleviate poverty and contribute to a sustainable economy by providing

people with productive biogas in developing countries. The concrete objective is to strengthen the young, promising pro-ductive biogas sector. The GAPB will realize this through the exchange of knowledge and knowledge generation, education and advocacy.

Biogas is a powerful technology through which intercon-nected development goals can be reached. The production of biogas is related to energy and food security, waste treatment, sanitation and climate change mitigation. The beneficiaries of the GAPB include productive biogas companies, practition-ers, scientists, national and regional associations, government, financial institutions and NGO’s. The GAPB now has 100+ partners worldwide. The functions of the GAPB include:

Exchange of knowledge and field lessons can be collect-• ed, documented, validated and shared through a forum & working groups;Documentation in an open-source online library;• Knowledge generation in working groups: work on • R&D topics, system monitoring and optimization, de-velop information and training materials;Market development and education: promotion activi-• ties to reach potential target groups, raising awareness and matchmaking and organizing sector events by co-ordinating body;Advocacy: influencing international and national policy • makers by board and ambassadors;Resource mobilization through donor agencies and fi-• nancial institutions to further innovations and market growth.

Clearly, much has changed since biogas was first promoted

as technology. The technology dates back a long time. In 1630 Jan Baptist van Helmont, a Flemish scholar mentioned about the use of biogas (Harris, 2013) . In 1808 H. Davy made ex-periments with manure and collected biogas. He was not inter-ested in the gas but rather the effect of anaerobic digestion on the decomposition of manure. Biogas was further developed by Indian scientists (first installation 1859) and Chinese dec-ades ago, to be used to convert human waste, cow manure and waste from households to energy.

Nowadays, the world is a different place: Our population is larger; we have been prosperous and battered economically; agriculture has intensified to meet global demands and chang-ing diets, we face environmental pollutions due to waste prob-lems. In the face of these challenges, we see a vital role for productive biogas. Productive biogas as renewable energy is of special importance as it has multiple benefits. It connects the development of sustainable energy to sustainable agriculture and a clean environment. What is productive biogas?

Productive biogas energizes the agricultural & food chain and other rural and semi-urban businesses/institutions. It in-cludes heating, mechanical power and electricity generation.

A group of partners active in the field of productive biogas met each other in October 2013 to discuss how productive biogas sector can be promoted as a solution for these chal-lenges. It was concluded that the exchange of knowledge and experiences is necessary to accelerate the establishment of the productive biogas sector. This was confirmed by many other productive biogas practitioners worldwide in discussions that followed. Many practitioners experience that they are out there alone, reinventing the wheel, lacking to create a momentum to make the world known that productive biogas can be a so-lution to these multiple challenges. Currently, experiences are fragmented and practitioners are scattered all over the world. Sharing of information and connecting to each other will in-

development

1 For more information, please refer to the brief history of biogas by Paul Harris, University of Adelaide, http://www.adelaide.edu.au/biogas/history/

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crease awareness and will accelerate the establishment of a sustainable productive biogas sector. After many past teething troubles of biogas, we now have to show the good successes of productive biogas in order to make it happen. This requires us to move from trial error learning into reflexive learning. Sustainable energy

Besides being a renewable energy source, the sustainability of productive biogas also refers to providing social and eco-nomic benefits. Productive biogas can lead to cost reductions and/or create income generating opportunities that improves livelihood of people that are deprived from reliable energy ac-cess. There is a large demand for modern energy services in rural areas all over the world. Electricity grids only reach few people outside urban areas, causing millions of households to rely on expensive fossil fuel powered systems; on inefficient, manual labour driven agro-processing services; or not having access to modern energy services at all. Energy supply options are often barely adequate, inefficient, unreliable and very cost-ly. This situation keeps rural areas in poverty equilibrium with no prospect of human development.

Productive biogas is applicable for a great number of new potential (industrial) uses, such as electricity production, co-fuelling to reduce the use of fossil fuels and large scale heat production for industrial agro-processing (such as milling, grinding, pressing, etc.). These uses when integrated into busi-ness operations can greatly reduce energy costs, increase over-all business profitability, and thus contributes to rural economic development. Sustainable agriculture

The human population is expected to grow to over 8 billion people by the year 2030 (Cohen 2003, UN 2004). The high-est percentage increase over the next 20 years is expected in sub-Saharan Africa (80%) (UNEP, 2010) . By 2030, 60% of the world's population will be living in urban areas. This will create enormous pressure on food security and nutrient bal-ances in agriculture. Although productive biogas merely can-not solve these problems, we see its great contribution in more efficient nutrient recycling, which will result in more robust

farming systems at the production side, and cleaner nature and environment at the processor and consumer side.

Soil degradation due to soil erosion and nutrient depletion, and eutrophication and oxygen depletion caused by nitrogen and phosphate leaching from agricultural lands to aquatic eco-systems, are global problems caused by intensification of food production and increased use of fertilizers. Food processing has become industrialized at concentrated locations, separating the sector from its supporting land base, which interrupts the nutrient flows. This creates problems of depletion at the source (land vegetation and soil), which ultimately leads to food inse-curity, and problems of pollution at the processor or consumer side (Weary et al. 2008), through the overuse or inefficient use of nitrogen and phosphorus.

Productive biogas its by-product after digestion is bio-slur-ry, which can be used as fertilizer. This can reduce the need for chemical fertilizer, which can reduce the depletion of the worlds finite phosphate mines. When organic waste streams, are recycled, these sort of losses can be avoided and phosphate can be reused as plant food. Bio-slurry is of higher quality than chemical fertilizer, because it contains organic matter which is indispensable for proper soil care, as it enhances soil struc-tures, infiltration, root growth, and water-holding capacity. It has repeatedly shown to result in higher yields. In comparison to farmyard manure or ‘normal’ slurry it has a range of practi-cal benefits: it is odorless and hence does not attract flies and other insects, and it acts as a weed suppressor as the digestion process kills most seeds.

2 UNEP (2010) Sustainable agriculture and the sustainable use of agricultural biodiversity: Concepts, Trends and challenges. Convention on biological diversity, Nairobi

Biogas water hyacinth in Uganda

Biogas producing electricity for agro proces-•sing sites;

Feedstock used: water hyacinth and cow •dung;

Substitutes diesel by biogas (100%); •

Use of digestate as organic fertilizer on the •islands;

Investment approx. 15,000 EURO; •

200 m3• PVC biogas bag, 65 m3 Biogas production, 90 kWh Electricity production per day , 15KVA Biogas generator.

Technicians installing the generator set for community power supply in Santa Rosillo, Amazone region, Peru.

Source productivebiogas.org

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The principle of sustainable use of bio-slurry implies the use of locally available agricultural residues, that are not especially grown for biogas production. Furthermore, a wide range of organic waste products can be used, such as slaughterhouse waste, organic municipal waste, human excreta and night soil can be used, providing a solution to environmental pollution and undesirable sanitation conditions. Food Security

Indirectly productive biogas can contribute to food security by reducing losses in post-harvest and storage of farm prod-ucts, by providing drying, heating, ventilation or cooling en-ergy. Also by energizing agriculture with energy for irrigation or livestock watering using biogas can enhance food security in the farm production. Clean environment

Organic waste streams that are produced on farm or at the agro processing centers are sometimes left to decay or dumped in rivers, creating air, water and soil pollution. In the urban centers organic waste is created by e.g. agro and food proces-sors, market places, toilets, etc. Valuable organic waste streams end in the municipal waste heaps, waste incineration plants or sewerage systems. Anaerobic digestion can be introduced as a second step waste treatment after the initial organic waste separation allowing for energy capturing and nutrients recy-cling. Sanitation is a concern in many developing countries. When properly used in a biogas system, these sanitation con-cerns can be solved. Furthermore, methane is a 21 times more potent GHG as CO2. Much of the organic waste currently di-gests in a watery environment, leading to methane and CO2 emissions. Processing organic waste captures the methane as biogas and hence reduces the GHG effect. Additionally, biogas can replace fossil fuels biogas as a renewable source avoids the production of CO2 produced by fossil fuels. Beyond knowledge sharing: achieving our mission

Today not all these added beneficial relations have been fully explored, promoted, or are not known at all. Making the world aware of these benefits will eventually lead to improved access to sustainable energy, improved agriculture and a clean environment. This will increase the empowerment rural com-munities, SME’s, agri-businesses, cooperatives and farmers and will eventually create a better and more beautiful world!

To realize our vision, the GAPB will create awareness and actively share accurate and trustworthy information on pro-ductive biogas solutions to all relevant productive biogas ac-tors. Some of the GAPB’s preliminary questions to make pro-ductive biogas more sustainable are:

1. How can productive biogas systems contribute to im-proving sustainable agriculture by closing nutrient cycles and thus improving farmers’ businesses.

2. How can productive biogas contribute to a clean en-vironment by using locally available agricultural resi-dues or organic waste streams as feedstock.

3. How can productive biogas systems contribute to eco-nomic development by sharing business models, pos-sibilities for income generation, ideas for cost saving measurements, etc.

4. How can productive biogas systems result in efficient, labor saving measurements, by sharing smart designs.

5. How can negative effects on the environment be avoided by informing our members on undesirable aspects such as gas leaks, biogas venting, polluting, slurry leaking, etc.

6. How can actors in the productive biogas sector be best connected to accelerate the development of the sec-tor.

7. How can system quality standards and labor and safe-ty standards be advocated in line with the country's rules and regulations

8. How can tailor made, cost efficient productive biogas solutions be promoted that meet contextual conditions, in terms of technology design, feedstock require-ments, operation, maintenance, and cost-benefits.

9. How can we make financial incentives more effective to kickstart the sector.

10. How can we stimulate system innovations and opti-mization by supporting R&D activities in collabora-tion with private sector and actively sharing results with its members.

Biogas Dual Fuel System

Biogas dual fuel system for producing •mechanical power for Multi Functional Pla-tforms (milling, sieving, pressing);

Feedstock used: cow dung, agro-waste •and weeds;

Substitutes diesel by biogas (60%); •

Use of digestate as organic fertilizer; •

Investment approx. 2,500 EURO. •

Source productivebiogas.org

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