Bhatt Arpit H, Tao Ling
Strategic Energy Analysis Center, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO 80401, USA.
National Bioenergy Center, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO 80401, USA.
Bioengineering (Basel). 2020 Jul 14;7(3):74. doi: 10.3390/bioengineering7030074.
As the demand for utilizing environment-friendly and sustainable energy sources is increasing, the adoption of waste-to-energy technologies has started gaining attention. Producing biogas via anaerobic digestion (AD) is promising and well-established; however, this process in many circumstances is unable to be cost competitive with natural gas. In this research, we provide a technical assessment of current process challenges and compare the cost of biogas production via the AD process from the literature, Aspen Plus process modeling, and CapdetWorks software. We also provide insights on critical factors affecting the AD process and recommendations on optimizing the process. We utilize four types of wet wastes, including wastewater sludge, food waste, swine manure, and fat, oil, and grease, to provide a quantitative assessment of theoretical energy yields of biogas production and its economic potential at different plant scales. Our results show that the cost of biogas production from process and economic models are in line with the literature with a potential to go even lower for small-scale plants with technological advancements. This research illuminates potential cost savings for biogas production using different wastes and guide investors to make informed decisions, while achieving waste management goals.
随着利用环保和可持续能源的需求不断增加，废物转化为能源技术的采用开始受到关注。通过厌氧消化（AD）生产沼气很有前景且已得到广泛应用；然而，在许多情况下，这个过程在成本上无法与天然气竞争。在本研究中，我们对当前的工艺挑战进行了技术评估，并通过文献、Aspen Plus工艺建模和CapdetWorks软件比较了通过AD工艺生产沼气的成本。我们还提供了影响AD工艺的关键因素的见解以及优化该工艺的建议。我们利用四种类型的湿废物，包括废水污泥、食物垃圾、猪粪以及脂肪、油和油脂，对不同工厂规模下沼气生产的理论能量产量及其经济潜力进行了定量评估。我们的结果表明，工艺和经济模型得出的沼气生产成本与文献一致，对于技术先进的小型工厂，成本还有可能进一步降低。这项研究揭示了利用不同废物生产沼气的潜在成本节约，并指导投资者做出明智决策，同时实现废物管理目标。
