engleski

A GIS based approach for evaluating the spatial distribution and seasonal variation of biogas production potential

Anaerobic digestion technology (AD) for biogas production offers numerous benefits as it may not only recover the energy contained in the biomass but also contribute to nutrient recovery and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. The EU Commission has recognised the role of AD in achieving circular economy goals and set the biogas and digestate production as recycling in the hierarchy of waste-to-energy operations. The expansion of the biogas production promotes the need for the assessment of energy potential of biomass, which is available for the biogas production and not in the competition with the other purposes. The assessment of that potential at the high spatial resolution is a necessary precondition for identification of the optimal location for biogas plant sites, techno-economic studies of biomass supply chains and managing the supply risks. This work presents a GIS (Geographical Information System) based approach for the spatial distribution of the energy potential for biogas production by taking into consideration the seasonal variation of biomass production. Statistical information, land use maps and previous research were used for the estimation of the energy and technical potential of agricultural residues, livestock waste and biodegradable municipal waste for the biogas production. Here, GIS tool was used to obtain the spatial distribution and seasonal variation of the potential. The presented approach was tested on Croatia as a case study. On the national level, calculated annual potential for biogas production from non- lignocellulosic agricultural residues and municipal biowaste equals 9.37 PJ, while the potential of lignocellulosic agricultural residues is 38.5 PJ. When assessing the seasonal variation of the potential, results have proved that it can be neglected for the non-lignocellulosic agricultural residues and municipal biowaste, while the generation of lignocellulosic agricultural resides has a significant variation during the year. The final results are presenting the seasonal and spatial distribution of the energy potential for biogas production at the spatial level of 1 km x 1 km.

GIS, biogas, agricultural residues, seasonal variation

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