International Congress Series 1293 (2006) 230 233

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Evaluation of a biogas plant from life cycle assessment (LCA)

S. Ishikawa a,*, S. Hoshiba a, T. Hinata b, T. Hishinuma a, S. Morita a
a

Department of Dairy Science, Rakuno Gakuen University, 582 Midorimachi, Bunkyodai, Ebetsu, Hokkaido 069-8501, Japan b Hokkaido Perfectural Konsen Agricultural Experiment Station, Japan

Abstract. Biogas plant (BGP) with anaerobic digestion is receiving high attention as a facility for both livestock manure treatment and electric power generation. The objective of the study was to compare an on-farm BGP with a centralized BGP system totally from the energetic point of view. The basic data for this evaluation were obtained from the centralized BGP in Betsukai, Hokkaido, which was built on May 2001 for the experimental purpose by the Civil Engineering Research Institute of Hokkaido. We used two evaluation methods. First, to estimate how global warming gas is influenced by BGP systems, we used life cycle assessment (LCA). Estimated emission of CO2 was about 2700 t from the introduction of BGP. The production of CO2 at the time of biogas combustion (1080t) was not included in emission because of the concept of carbon neutral. D 2006 Published by Elsevier B.V.
Keywords: Biogas plant; Life cycle assessment; Environmental assessment; The energy pay-back time; Livestock manure treatment

1. Introduction Nowadays, the biogas plant (BGP) with anaerobic digestion is receiving high attention as a facility for both livestock manure treatment and electric power generation. Generally speaking, the BGP reduces odor from raw manure and produces the digested slurry with rich manure components similar to the fertilizer. The typical interest is generating electricity. The two main types of manure-based BGP in Japan, on-farm BGP and the large-scale centralized BGP represent integrated systems of renewable energy production,

* Corresponding author. Tel./fax: +81 11 388 4813. E-mail address: kozaru_nono@mail.goo.ne.jp (S. Ishikawa). 0531-5131/ D 2006 Published by Elsevier B.V. doi:10.1016/j.ics.2006.02.008

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Fig. 1.

manure and organic waste treatment and nutrient recycling, emphasizing the environmental, energy and agricultural benefits of anaerobic digestion. However, the evaluation on the BGP has been made only on the on-farm BGP. It was found that on-farm BGP indicates utilization of digested slurry as fertilizer is the indispensable element for practical feasibility at the BGP. In other words, the primary essence to improve the BGP for facility of manure treatment is the presence of enough fields for digested slurry utilization [1]. On the other hand, the centralized BGP is able to expect the scale merit of a building. However, the centralized BGP needs to consider original problem of collection of a material, sanitation processing of digested manure, a janitor and so on. The objective of the study was to compare an on-farm BGP with a centralized BGP system totally from the energetic point of view. 2. Materials and methods 2.1. Investigation object of on-farm BGP and a centralized BGP The BGP, which is the object of on-farm BGP, was constructed in March 2000 at Rakuno Gakuen University (RGU) (Fig. 1a). This BGP is a research plant of the first practical size in Japan. Therefore, on-farm BGP was evaluated by the same calculation based on the evaluation of the RGU BGP. The basic data for a centralized BGP were obtained from BGP in Betsukai, Hokkaido, which was built in May 2001 for experimental purposes by the Civil Engineering Research Institute of Hokkaido (Table 1, Fig. 1b). From October 2001, continuous methane fermentation in the Betsukai BGP has commenced.
Table 1 Setting condition on the centralized BGP Items Livestock Quantity of raw slurry Temperature of digester Retention time Rate of biogas production Methane concentration Calorific value of methane Setting Dairy cow 50m3/day 35 30days 30m3/m3 60% 36MJ/m3 Remark Dry matter 10% Mesophilic digestion Per 1m3 raw slurry

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Table 2 Total input fossil energy in centralized BGP system Items Initial energy investment Operating energy Maintenance energy Total Fossil energy (GJ) 42,000 1140 650 43,790 CO2 emissions (kg) 2,589,000 78,000 2,667,000

2.2. Methods We used two evaluation methods. First, to estimate how global warming gas is influenced by BGP systems, we use life cycle assessment (LCA) [2]. According to the IPCC data [3], CH4 affects global warming by 23 times more than CO2. In other words 1 kg-CH4 is converted into 23 kg-CO2 in global warming effect. The total global warming effect in this study is measured as the total quantity of CO2 [4]. We need to consider carbon neutral that is the official concept of IPCC. The concept of carbon neutral is that CO2 of the biomass resources origin depends on the breathing of a plant originally, and do not contribute to the increase of CO2. LCA is a method that takes into consideration all inputs and outputs. Evaluation range of this study is shown on energy flows of the BGP system (e.g., constructing, transport, product use and waste treatment). We estimate each global warming gas emission. The second evaluation method was made by comparing fossil energy input for constructing, running and maintaining a BGP with energy outputs by producing electric power, heat and digested manure. The energy output from digested manure was obtained by estimating energy consumption for producing chemical fertilizer having equivalent contents of N, P2O5 and K2O. The energy pay-back time (EPT) base on the centralized BGP was calculated from the energy inputs and outputs. 3. Results 3.1. The results of global warming impact (CO2) calculations The amount of global warming gas exhaust in all processes was calculated from the construction of a plant to demolition for building [5]. Estimated emission of CO2 was

Fig. 2.

S. Ishikawa et al. / International Congress Series 1293 (2006) 230233 Table 3 Total available energy output in centralized BGP system Items Electricity Heat Energy of digested slurry Fossil energy (GJ/year) 1665 2770 2005

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CO2 emissions (kg) 427,000 405,000 3000

about 2700t from the introduction of BGP (Table 2). We understand that a percentage of CO2 emissions by initial energy investment of a plant accounts for about 80% of the whole (Fig. 2a). Carbon dioxide exhausted from the fuel by the collection of raw materials and transportation for digested manure was only 3%. The production of CO2 at the time of biogas combustion (1080 t) was not included in emission because of the concept of carbon neutral. 3.2. The energy pay-back time (EPT) The initial energy investment of the centralized BGP was calculated at 42,000 GJ. About 10% of the initial energy investment on the centralized BGP is the energy of the vehicle for transportation. The total input fossil energy and the total available energy output of the centralized BGP are shown in Tables 2 and 3. The EPT on the centralized BGP was 16years when digested manure was not utilized as fertilizer. The EPT became much shorter than 9years when the digested manure was utilized as fertilizer (Fig. 2b). 4. Discussion The utilization of digested slurry as fertilizer is indispensable for energetic feasibility of a BGP. The energy of spreading digested slurry as fertilizer needs to be included in this calculation in the future although it is not expected to be very high. References
[1] T. Hishinuma, et al., Evaluation of a biogas plant on farm from the energetic point of view, Journal of the Society of Agricultural Structures, Japan 33 (1) (2002) 45 52. [2] LCA Business introduction edit committee, LCA Introduction to Business, Corporation Industrial Environmental Protection Society, Tokyo, 1998. [3] IPCC, Climate Change: The Scientific Basis, 2001. [4] T. Hinata, H. Hara, Life cycle assessment of centralized biogas plants in operation, International Symposium on Issues Concerning Biogas Plants in Cold-Snowy Regions, 2003, pp. 275 284. [5] K. Nansai, Y. Moriguchi, S. Tohno, Embodied Energy and Emission Intensity Data for Japan Using Input Output Tables(3EID)Inventory Data for LCA, National Institute for Environmental Studies, Japan, 2002.