IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/aesc23/334521.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

A Bio-Economic Model of producing silage as a feedstock for Anaerobic Digestion in Ireland

Author

Listed:
  • Deasy, Maurice J.
  • Thorne, Fiona

Abstract

The economic case for the production of silage for Anaerobic Digestion (AD) can only be established by analysis of the potential costs and returns at farm level. This paper uses farm level data from Ireland in a bio-economic modelling framework to provide total costs per hectare and per tonne for production of silage for an off farm AD facility. Whilst perennial rye grass has traditionally been the sward of choice for livestock farmers in Ireland, the economics of a multi-cut nitrogen fixing crop such as red clover has been relatively unknown. The results from the simulated bio-economic model show that the total costs of production silage for AD has increased significantly in the past twenty four months. The modelled cost of Red-Clover based silage fertilised with digestate has increased from €29.35 to €43.68 per ton between 2018-2020 to 2022, an increase of 49%. The results also highlight the importance of accounting for the opportunity cost of nutrient content of digestate which increased from €370 to €907 between 2018-2020 and 2022. Furthermore, a 17% cost saving can be made while reducing overall GHG emissions by utilising digestate in a separate farm enterprise.

Suggested Citation

  • Deasy, Maurice J. & Thorne, Fiona, 2023. "A Bio-Economic Model of producing silage as a feedstock for Anaerobic Digestion in Ireland," 97th Annual Conference, March 27-29, 2023, Warwick University, Coventry, UK 334521, Agricultural Economics Society - AES.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:aesc23:334521
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.334521
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/334521/files/AES2023_AnaerobicDigestionIreland.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.334521?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Montanarella, Luca & Panagos, Panos, 2021. "The relevance of sustainable soil management within the European Green Deal," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    2. Maurizio Carlini & Enrico Maria Mosconi & Sonia Castellucci & Mauro Villarini & Andrea Colantoni, 2017. "An Economical Evaluation of Anaerobic Digestion Plants Fed with Organic Agro-Industrial Waste," Energies, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-15, August.
    3. Murphy, J.D. & Power, N., 2009. "Technical and economic analysis of biogas production in Ireland utilising three different crop rotations," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 86(1), pages 25-36, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sergio Cappucci & Serena Nappi & Andrea Cappelli, 2022. "Green Public Areas and Urban Open Spaces Management: New GreenCAL Tool Algorithms and Circular Economy Implications," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-25, June.
    2. Tomasz Jałowiec & Henryk Wojtaszek, 2021. "Analysis of the RES Potential in Accordance with the Energy Policy of the European Union," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-33, September.
    3. Justyna Górka & Małgorzata Cimochowicz-Rybicka & Dominika Poproch, 2022. "Sludge Management at the Kraków-Płaszów WWTP—Case Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-11, June.
    4. Budzianowski, Wojciech Marcin, 2011. "Can ‘negative net CO2 emissions’ from decarbonised biogas-to-electricity contribute to solving Poland’s carbon capture and sequestration dilemmas?," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(11), pages 6318-6325.
    5. Mohamed A. Hassaan & Antonio Pantaleo & Francesco Santoro & Marwa R. Elkatory & Giuseppe De Mastro & Amany El Sikaily & Safaa Ragab & Ahmed El Nemr, 2020. "Techno-Economic Analysis of ZnO Nanoparticles Pretreatments for Biogas Production from Barley Straw," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-26, September.
    6. Morin, Philippe & Marcos, Bernard & Moresoli, Christine & Laflamme, Claude B., 2010. "Economic and environmental assessment on the energetic valorization of organic material for a municipality in Quebec, Canada," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 87(1), pages 275-283, January.
    7. Martinez, E. & Marcos, A. & Al-Kassir, A. & Jaramillo, M.A. & Mohamad, A.A., 2012. "Mathematical model of a laboratory-scale plant for slaughterhouse effluents biodigestion for biogas production," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 210-219.
    8. Marc Dressler, 2023. "Generic strategic profiling of entrepreneurial SMEs – environmentalism as hygiene factor," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 19(1), pages 121-150, March.
    9. Bedoić, Robert & Dorotić, Hrvoje & Schneider, Daniel Rolph & Čuček, Lidija & Ćosić, Boris & Pukšec, Tomislav & Duić, Neven, 2021. "Synergy between feedstock gate fee and power-to-gas: An energy and economic analysis of renewable methane production in a biogas plant," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 173(C), pages 12-23.
    10. Marek Zieliński & Piotr Koza & Artur Łopatka, 2022. "Agriculture from Areas Facing Natural or Other Specific Constraints (ANCs) in Poland, Its Characteristics, Directions of Changes and Challenges in the Context of the European Green Deal," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-22, September.
    11. Daniela Bona & Andrea Cristoforetti & Roberto Zanzotti & Daniela Bertoldi & Nicole Dellai & Silvia Silvestri, 2022. "Matured Manure and Compost from the Organic Fraction of Solid Waste Digestate Application in Intensive Apple Orchards," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(23), pages 1-15, November.
    12. Smyth, Beatrice M. & Smyth, Henry & Murphy, Jerry D., 2011. "Determining the regional potential for a grass biomethane industry," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 88(6), pages 2037-2049, June.
    13. Höhn, J. & Lehtonen, E. & Rasi, S. & Rintala, J., 2014. "A Geographical Information System (GIS) based methodology for determination of potential biomasses and sites for biogas plants in southern Finland," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 1-10.
    14. Grażyna Żukowska & Magdalena Myszura-Dymek & Szymon Roszkowski & Magdalena Olkiewicz, 2023. "Selected Properties of Soil-like Substrates Made from Mine Coal Waste and Their Effect on Plant Yields," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(18), pages 1-19, September.
    15. Dávid Nagy & Péter Balogh & Zoltán Gabnai & József Popp & Judit Oláh & Attila Bai, 2018. "Economic Analysis of Pellet Production in Co-Digestion Biogas Plants," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(5), pages 1-21, May.
    16. Thamsiriroj, Thanasit & Murphy, Jerry D., 2011. "A critical review of the applicability of biodiesel and grass biomethane as biofuels to satisfy both biofuel targets and sustainability criteria," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 88(4), pages 1008-1019, April.
    17. Jonas Volungevicius & Kristina Amaleviciute-Volunge, 2023. "A Conceptual Approach to the Histosols Profile Morphology as a Risk Indicator in Assessing the Sustainability of Their Use and Impact on Climate Change," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(18), pages 1-14, September.
    18. Teresa Rodríguez-Espinosa & Jose Navarro-Pedreño & Ignacio Gómez Lucas & María Belén Almendro Candel & Ana Pérez Gimeno & Manuel Jordán Vidal & Iliana Papamichael & Antonis A. Zorpas, 2022. "Environmental Risk from Organic Residues," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(1), pages 1-12, December.
    19. Claudinei De Souza Guimarães & David Rodrigues da Silva Maia & Eduardo Gonçalves Serra, 2018. "Construction of Biodigesters to Optimize the Production of Biogas from Anaerobic Co-Digestion of Food Waste and Sewage," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-10, April.
    20. Barbara Breza-Boruta & Justyna Bauza-Kaszewska, 2023. "Effect of Microbial Preparation and Biomass Incorporation on Soil Biological and Chemical Properties," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-19, April.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Environmental Economics and Policy; Agribusiness;

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:aesc23:334521. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aesukea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.