The management of livestock manures and slurries noticeably improved since the massive introduction of anaerobic digestion (AD) plants in Italy and other European Union (EU) countries. However, these plants heavily rely on incentives, and the recent switch of European biogas policies from electricity to biomethane potentially threatens the economic viability of manure AD. In this study, three retrofit options are analyzed for an installation in Piedmont (NW Italy) that is currently producing 999 kWel through combined heat and power (CHP). The techno-economic feasibility and the greenhouse gas (GHG) budget is analyzed for each solution. Results show that exploiting current incentives on electricity is vital to fund the retrofit of CHP plants to biomethane. Energy crop and electricity prices, the sale price of biomethane certificates after the end of incentives, and biogas productivity are the critical parameters for the economic profitability of manure AD plants, along with the possibility to deliver biomethane directly to the pipeline grid. This study provides insight to the reconversion of manure AD plants, addressing issues that affect hundreds of installations in Italy and other EU countries.

Economic viability and greenhouse gas (GHG) budget of the biomethane retrofit of manure-operated biogas plants: A case study from Piedmont, Italy / Casasso, A.; Puleo, M.; Panepinto, D.; Zanetti, M.. - In: SUSTAINABILITY. - ISSN 2071-1050. - ELETTRONICO. - 13:14(2021), p. 7979. [10.3390/su13147979]

Economic viability and greenhouse gas (GHG) budget of the biomethane retrofit of manure-operated biogas plants: A case study from Piedmont, Italy

Casasso A.;Panepinto D.;Zanetti M.
2021

Abstract

The management of livestock manures and slurries noticeably improved since the massive introduction of anaerobic digestion (AD) plants in Italy and other European Union (EU) countries. However, these plants heavily rely on incentives, and the recent switch of European biogas policies from electricity to biomethane potentially threatens the economic viability of manure AD. In this study, three retrofit options are analyzed for an installation in Piedmont (NW Italy) that is currently producing 999 kWel through combined heat and power (CHP). The techno-economic feasibility and the greenhouse gas (GHG) budget is analyzed for each solution. Results show that exploiting current incentives on electricity is vital to fund the retrofit of CHP plants to biomethane. Energy crop and electricity prices, the sale price of biomethane certificates after the end of incentives, and biogas productivity are the critical parameters for the economic profitability of manure AD plants, along with the possibility to deliver biomethane directly to the pipeline grid. This study provides insight to the reconversion of manure AD plants, addressing issues that affect hundreds of installations in Italy and other EU countries.
2021
File in questo prodotto:
File Dimensione Formato  
2021_Casasso et al _biomethane_SUSTAINABILITY.pdf

accesso aperto

Descrizione: Pdf in versione editoriale
Tipologia: 2a Post-print versione editoriale / Version of Record
Licenza: Creative commons
Dimensione 731.25 kB
Formato Adobe PDF
731.25 kB Adobe PDF Visualizza/Apri
Pubblicazioni consigliate

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11583/2923154