IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/energy/v336y2025ics0360544225038459.html

Conceptual design and economic evaluation of an integrated anaerobic digestion system for sustainable dairy manure management

Author

Listed:
  • Jalali, Sajjad
  • Fakhroleslam, Mohammad
  • Hassani, Mohammad Amin
  • Rezaei, Mehdi
  • Hosseinpour, Morteza

Abstract

The sustainable management of livestock waste is a growing environmental and energy challenge, especially in regions with concentrated dairy farming. This study presents the conceptual design and techno-economic analysis of a medium-scale anaerobic digestion (AD) plant for the treatment of dairy cow manure. The proposed plant processes 250 ton of manure per day and integrates four main units: a pretreatment system, a continuously stirred tank reactor (CSTR) digester, a biogas upgrading system, and a digestate management unit. Biogas is purified using iron sponge beds, cooling systems, and activated carbon filters to meet the specifications of a combined heat and power generation system, which produces 352 kWe of electricity and 327 kWth of heat, 254 kW of which is reused to maintain digester temperature. The system avoids the release of 3439 ton of fossil-derived CO2 annually and reduces water consumption by 10 ton per day through internal recycling, with the static and dynamic payback periods of 7.22 and 9.18 years, respectively. When benchmarked against real-world plants, the design demonstrates competitive energy efficiency and cost-effectiveness for its scale. This study highlights the viability of medium-scale AD plants as a practical solution for renewable energy generation, nutrient recovery, and climate-resilient manure management.

Suggested Citation

  • Jalali, Sajjad & Fakhroleslam, Mohammad & Hassani, Mohammad Amin & Rezaei, Mehdi & Hosseinpour, Morteza, 2025. "Conceptual design and economic evaluation of an integrated anaerobic digestion system for sustainable dairy manure management," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 336(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:energy:v:336:y:2025:i:c:s0360544225038459
    DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2025.138203
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544225038459
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.energy.2025.138203?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Grzegorz Łysiak & Ryszard Kulig & Jawad Kadhim Al Aridhee, 2023. "Toward New Value-Added Products Made from Anaerobic Digestate: Part 1—Study on the Effect of Moisture Content on the Densification of Solid Digestate," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-19, March.
    2. Kang, Jun Young & Kang, Do Won & Kim, Tong Seop & Hur, Kwang Beom, 2014. "Comparative economic analysis of gas turbine-based power generation and combined heat and power systems using biogas fuel," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 309-318.
    3. Singh, Buta & Szamosi, Zoltán & Siménfalvi, Zoltán, 2019. "State of the art on mixing in an anaerobic digester: A review," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 922-936.
    4. Nizami, Abdul-Sattar & Murphy, Jerry D., 2010. "What type of digester configurations should be employed to produce biomethane from grass silage?," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 14(6), pages 1558-1568, August.
    5. Akbulut, Abdullah, 2012. "Techno-economic analysis of electricity and heat generation from farm-scale biogas plant: Çiçekdağı case study," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 44(1), pages 381-390.
    6. El Ibrahimi, Mohammed & Khay, Ismail & El Maakoul, Anas & Bakhouya, Mohamed, 2022. "Effects of the temperature range on the energy performance of mixed and unmixed digesters with submerged waste: An experimental and CFD simulation study," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 200(C), pages 1092-1104.
    7. Dehhaghi, Somayeh & Choobchian, Shahla & Azadi, Hossein, 2024. "Measurement and comparison of different dimensions of renewable energy policy implementation in the agricultural sector," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 96(C).
    8. Salah Elhaggar & Hala Omar, 2017. "Sustainable and Cost-Effective use of Organic Waste," Current Trends in Biomedical Engineering & Biosciences, Juniper Publishers Inc., vol. 7(4), pages 74-79, August.
    9. Garkoti, Pankaj & Ni, Ji-Qin & Thengane, Sonal K., 2024. "Energy management for maintaining anaerobic digestion temperature in biogas plants," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 199(C).
    10. Yellezuome, Dominic & Zhu, Xianpu & Wang, Zengzhen & Liu, Ronghou, 2022. "Mitigation of ammonia inhibition in anaerobic digestion of nitrogen-rich substrates for biogas production by ammonia stripping: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    11. Muhamed Rasit Atelge & Halil Senol & Mohammed Djaafri & Tulin Avci Hansu & David Krisa & Abdulaziz Atabani & Cigdem Eskicioglu & Hamdi Muratçobanoğlu & Sebahattin Unalan & Slimane Kalloum & Nuri Azbar, 2021. "A Critical Overview of the State-of-the-Art Methods for Biogas Purification and Utilization Processes," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(20), pages 1-39, October.
    12. Wojciech Czekała & Tomasz Jasiński & Mieczysław Grzelak & Kamil Witaszek & Jacek Dach, 2022. "Biogas Plant Operation: Digestate as the Valuable Product," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(21), pages 1-11, November.
    13. Hosseini, Seyed Ehsan & Andwari, Amin Mahmoudzadeh & Wahid, Mazlan Abdul & Bagheri, Ghobad, 2013. "A review on green energy potentials in Iran," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 533-545.
    14. Tabatabaei, Sharareh Majdzadeh & Hadian, Ebrahim & Marzban, Hossein & Zibaei, Mansour, 2017. "Economic, welfare and environmental impact of feed-in tariff policy: A case study in Iran," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 164-169.
    15. Gahyun Baek & Danbee Kim & Jinsu Kim & Hanwoong Kim & Changsoo Lee, 2020. "Treatment of Cattle Manure by Anaerobic Co-Digestion with Food Waste and Pig Manure: Methane Yield and Synergistic Effect," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(13), pages 1-13, July.
    16. Lantz, Mikael, 2012. "The economic performance of combined heat and power from biogas produced from manure in Sweden – A comparison of different CHP technologies," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 502-511.
    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. Patrizio, P. & Leduc, S. & Chinese, D. & Kraxner, F., 2017. "Internalizing the external costs of biogas supply chains in the Italian energy sector," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 85-96.
    2. Herz, Gregor & Reichelt, Erik & Jahn, Matthias, 2017. "Design and evaluation of a Fischer-Tropsch process for the production of waxes from biogas," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 370-381.
    3. Buta Singh & Narinder Singh & Zsolt Čonka & Michal Kolcun & Zoltán Siménfalvi & Zsolt Péter & Zoltán Szamosi, 2021. "Critical Analysis of Methods Adopted for Evaluation of Mixing Efficiency in an Anaerobic Digester," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(12), pages 1-27, June.
    4. Gazda, Wiesław & Stanek, Wojciech, 2016. "Energy and environmental assessment of integrated biogas trigeneration and photovoltaic plant as more sustainable industrial system," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 169(C), pages 138-149.
    5. Maghanaki, M. Mohammadi & Ghobadian, B. & Najafi, G. & Galogah, R. Janzadeh, 2013. "Potential of biogas production in Iran," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 702-714.
    6. Teymoori Hamzehkolaei, Fatemeh & Amjady, Nima, 2018. "A techno-economic assessment for replacement of conventional fossil fuel based technologies in animal farms with biogas fueled CHP units," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 602-614.
    7. Sean O’Connor & Ehiaze Ehimen & Suresh C. Pillai & Gary Lyons & John Bartlett, 2020. "Economic and Environmental Analysis of Small-Scale Anaerobic Digestion Plants on Irish Dairy Farms," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-20, February.
    8. Doddapaneni, Tharaka Rama Krishna C. & Praveenkumar, Ramasamy & Tolvanen, Henrik & Rintala, Jukka & Konttinen, Jukka, 2018. "Techno-economic evaluation of integrating torrefaction with anaerobic digestion," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 213(C), pages 272-284.
    9. Godara, Rakesh & Gakkhar, Nikhil & Jha, Mithilesh Kumar & Vijay, Vandit, 2026. "Comprehensive thermal assessment of anaerobic digestion process in biogas plants," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 226(PB).
    10. Velásquez Piñas, Jean Agustin & Venturini, Osvaldo José & Silva Lora, Electo Eduardo & del Olmo, Oscar Almazan & Calle Roalcaba, Orly Denisse, 2019. "An economic holistic feasibility assessment of centralized and decentralized biogas plants with mono-digestion and co-digestion systems," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 40-51.
    11. Wang, Hanxi & Xu, Jianling & Yu, Haixia & Liu, Xuejun & Yin, Wei & Liu, Yuanyuan & Liu, Zhongwei & Zhang, Tian, 2015. "Study of the application and methods for the comprehensive treatment of municipal solid waste in northeastern China," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 1881-1889.
    12. Shane, Agabu & Gheewala, Shabbir H. & Kafwembe, Young, 2017. "Urban commercial biogas power plant model for Zambian towns," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 1-14.
    13. Sunhee Kim & Taehong Sung & Kyung Chun Kim, 2017. "Thermodynamic Performance Analysis of a Biogas-Fuelled Micro-Gas Turbine with a Bottoming Organic Rankine Cycle for Sewage Sludge and Food Waste Treatment Plants," Energies, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-22, February.
    14. Alizadeh, Reza & Soltanisehat, Leili & Lund, Peter D. & Zamanisabzi, Hamed, 2020. "Improving renewable energy policy planning and decision-making through a hybrid MCDM method," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    15. Guan, Tingting & Alvfors, Per & Lindbergh, Göran, 2014. "Investigation of the prospect of energy self-sufficiency and technical performance of an integrated PEMFC (proton exchange membrane fuel cell), dairy farm and biogas plant system," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 685-691.
    16. Rahul Kadam & Sangyeol Jo & Jonghwa Lee & Kamonwan Khanthong & Heewon Jang & Jungyu Park, 2024. "A Review on the Anaerobic Co-Digestion of Livestock Manures in the Context of Sustainable Waste Management," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(3), pages 1-27, January.
    17. Hosseini, Seyed Ehsan & Wahid, Mazlan Abdul, 2014. "Development of biogas combustion in combined heat and power generation," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 868-875.
    18. Amirinia, Gholamreza & Mafi, Somayeh & Mazaheri, Said, 2017. "Offshore wind resource assessment of Persian Gulf using uncertainty analysis and GIS," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 915-929.
    19. Jepleting, Anceita & Mecha, Achisa C. & Sombei, Dorcas & Moraa, Doricah & Chollom, Martha N., 2025. "Potential of low-cost materials for biogas purification, a review of recent developments," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 210(C).
    20. Rodriguez, Cristina & Alaswad, A. & Benyounis, K.Y. & Olabi, A.G., 2017. "Pretreatment techniques used in biogas production from grass," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 68(P2), pages 1193-1204.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    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:eee:energy:v:336:y:2025:i:c:s0360544225038459. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/energy .

    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.