biogas overview

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The German Biogas Industry

Technologies and applications

Biogas can be extracted from a variety of sources such as organic waste from landfill sites (landfill gas), municipal wastewater (sewage gas), and Photo: Schmack Biogas GmbH industrial/domestic/commercial organic waste as well as from agricultural waste materials and energy crops. The fermenting process o organic substances in an air and oxygen-free environment uses various anaerobic bacteria, the composition of which depends on their organic feed stock and specific process conditions (temperature and pH level). A decisive factor in the productivity o biogas plants is the microbiological processes that occur during fermentation. As a rule, agricultural biogas plants use liquid manure as a base material. Renewable sources such as corn, cereal crops and other energy plants such as sunflowers, Sudan grass, oil radish, Sorghum bicolor etc., are increasingly being used to raise gas yields. Commercial plants also process wastewater (from purification plants) as well as waste from food production, food scraps, grease traps and slaughterhouse waste. The extracted biogas is comprised of 55 to 70 percent methane, the energetically usable component. The gas also includes carbon dioxide as well as minimal amounts of hydrogen sulphide, ammonia and hydrogen. Aside from the biogas itself, a digestate is created a mix of water, minerals and organic substances which have no decomposed. This by-product can be used as a high-grade fertiliser in agricultural uses, thereby closing the nutrient cycle with the cultivation of energy crops, or it can be sold as a mineral fertiliser. The stationary use of biogas in combined heat and power plants (CHP plants) for generating power and heat (CHP) achieves a very high degree of efficiency. The electricity produced can be fed into a public grid or used to generate power for off-grid systems for industrial and commercial areas or even provide power to remot rural settlements with no grid connection. The waste heat can also be utilised in downstream systems to generate additional power, for heating and rying or in the operation of refrigerators. If there is no appropriate heat sink at the plant location, the feed-in of biogas into

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biogas overview

http://www.renewables-made-in-germany.com/en/start/bio-energy/biogas...

the natural gas grid, after processing into natural gas quality (bio methane), is an attractive option. This enables biogas to be used in areas with a high demand for heat and achieves maximum efficiency by eventually producing power (CHP) at the same time. The decoupling of production and utilisation provides, in principle, an opportunity to use the biogas as fuel for natural gas vehicles. In developing and emerging nations, biogas generated from simple biogas plants is primarily used as an economical alternative to electricity, natural gas or wood for cooking.
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6/5/2011 11:53 AM