IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v12y2019i17p3287-d261172.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Energy and Nutrients’ Recovery in Anaerobic Digestion of Agricultural Biomass: An Italian Perspective for Future Applications

Author

Listed:
  • Federico Battista

    (Department of Biotechnology, University of Verona, Strada Le Grazie 15, I-37134 Verona, Italy)

  • Nicola Frison

    (Department of Biotechnology, University of Verona, Strada Le Grazie 15, I-37134 Verona, Italy)

  • David Bolzonella

    (Department of Biotechnology, University of Verona, Strada Le Grazie 15, I-37134 Verona, Italy)

Abstract

Anaerobic digestion (AD) is the most adopted biotechnology for the valorization of agricultural biomass into valuable products like biogas and digestate, a renewable fertilizer. This paper illustrates in the first part the actual situation of the anaerobic digestion sector in Italy, including the number of plants, their geographical distribution, the installed power and the typical feedstock used. In the second part, a future perspective, independent of the actual incentive scheme, is presented. It emerged that Italy is the second European country for the number of anaerobic digestion plants with more than 1500 units for a total electricity production of about 1400 MW el . More than 60% of them are in the range of 200 kW–1 MW installed power. Almost 70% of the plants are located in the northern part of the Country where intensive agriculture and husbandry are applied. Most of the plants are now using energy crops in the feedstock. The future perspectives of the biogas sector in Italy will necessarily consider a shift from power generation to biomethane production, and an enlargement of the portfolio of possible feedstocks, the recovery of nutrients from digestate in a concentrated form, and the expansion of the AD sector to southern regions. Power to gas and biobased products will complete the future scenario.

Suggested Citation

  • Federico Battista & Nicola Frison & David Bolzonella, 2019. "Energy and Nutrients’ Recovery in Anaerobic Digestion of Agricultural Biomass: An Italian Perspective for Future Applications," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-13, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:12:y:2019:i:17:p:3287-:d:261172
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/12/17/3287/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/12/17/3287/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Veronica Arthurson, 2009. "Closing the Global Energy and Nutrient Cycles through Application of Biogas Residue to Agricultural Land – Potential Benefits and Drawback," Energies, MDPI, vol. 2(2), pages 1-17, April.
    2. Alberto Benato & Alarico Macor, 2019. "Italian Biogas Plants: Trend, Subsidies, Cost, Biogas Composition and Engine Emissions," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(6), pages 1-31, March.
    3. Czyrnek-Delêtre, Magdalena M. & Smyth, Beatrice M. & Murphy, Jerry D., 2017. "Beyond carbon and energy: The challenge in setting guidelines for life cycle assessment of biofuel systems," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 436-448.
    4. Hahn, Henning & Krautkremer, Bernd & Hartmann, Kilian & Wachendorf, Michael, 2014. "Review of concepts for a demand-driven biogas supply for flexible power generation," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 383-393.
    5. Fabio De Menna & Remo Alessio Malagnino & Matteo Vittuari & Giovanni Molari & Giovanna Seddaiu & Paola A. Deligios & Stefania Solinas & Luigi Ledda, 2016. "Potential Biogas Production from Artichoke Byproducts in Sardinia, Italy," Energies, MDPI, vol. 9(2), pages 1-11, February.
    6. Cobuloglu, Halil I. & Büyüktahtakın, İ. Esra, 2015. "Food vs. biofuel: An optimization approach to the spatio-temporal analysis of land-use competition and environmental impacts," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 418-434.
    7. Garcia, Natalia Herrero & Mattioli, Andrea & Gil, Aida & Frison, Nicola & Battista, Federico & Bolzonella, David, 2019. "Evaluation of the methane potential of different agricultural and food processing substrates for improved biogas production in rural areas," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 1-10.
    8. Pöschl, Martina & Ward, Shane & Owende, Philip, 2010. "Evaluation of energy efficiency of various biogas production and utilization pathways," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 87(11), pages 3305-3321, November.
    9. Selvaggi, Roberta & Pappalardo, Gioacchino & Chinnici, Gaetano & Fabbri, Claudio I., 2018. "Assessing land efficiency of biomethane industry: A case study of Sicily," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 689-695.
    10. Susanne Theuerl & Christiane Herrmann & Monika Heiermann & Philipp Grundmann & Niels Landwehr & Ulrich Kreidenweis & Annette Prochnow, 2019. "The Future Agricultural Biogas Plant in Germany: A Vision," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-32, January.
    11. Hamelin, Lorie & Naroznova, Irina & Wenzel, Henrik, 2014. "Environmental consequences of different carbon alternatives for increased manure-based biogas," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 774-782.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Alexandros Yfantis & Nikos Yfantis & Triantafyllia Angelakopoulou & George Giannakakis & Fabien Michelet & Spyros Dokianakis & Evangelia Vasilaki & Nikos Katsarakis, 2022. "Industrial Pilot for Assessment of Polymeric and Ceramic Membrane Efficiency in Treatment of Liquid Digestate from Biogas Power Plant," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(18), pages 1-16, September.
    2. Valerii Havrysh & Vitalii Nitsenko & Vasyl Hruban, 2022. "Sorghum-Based Power Generation in Southern Ukraine: Energy and Environmental Assessment," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 12(12), pages 1-15, December.
    3. Giovanni Alessandro Cappelli & Fabrizio Ginaldi & Davide Fanchini & Sebastiano Andrea Corinzia & Salvatore Luciano Cosentino & Enrico Ceotto, 2021. "Model-Based Assessment of Giant Reed ( Arundo donax L.) Energy Yield in the Form of Diverse Biofuels in Marginal Areas of Italy," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-24, May.
    4. Bolzonella, D. & Battista, F. & Mattioli, A. & Nicolato, C. & Frison, N. & Lampis, S., 2020. "Biological thermophilic post hydrolysis of digestate enhances the biogas production in the anaerobic digestion of agro-waste," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    5. Oleg Bazaluk & Valerii Havrysh & Mykhailo Fedorchuk & Vitalii Nitsenko, 2021. "Energy Assessment of Sorghum Cultivation in Southern Ukraine," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 11(8), pages 1-22, July.
    6. Afifi Akhiar & Felipe Guilayn & Michel Torrijos & Audrey Battimelli & Abd Halim Shamsuddin & Hélène Carrère, 2021. "Correlations between the Composition of Liquid Fraction of Full-Scale Digestates and Process Conditions," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-24, February.
    7. Enas Taha Sayed & Abdul Ghani Olabi & Abdul Hai Alami & Ali Radwan & Ayman Mdallal & Ahmed Rezk & Mohammad Ali Abdelkareem, 2023. "Renewable Energy and Energy Storage Systems," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(3), pages 1-26, February.
    8. Agnieszka Urbanowska & Małgorzata Kabsch-Korbutowicz, 2021. "The Use of Flat Ceramic Membranes for Purification of the Liquid Fraction of the Digestate from Municipal Waste Biogas Plants," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-12, July.
    9. Robert Bedoić & Goran Smoljanić & Tomislav Pukšec & Lidija Čuček & Davor Ljubas & Neven Duić, 2021. "Geospatial Analysis and Environmental Impact Assessment of a Holistic and Interdisciplinary Approach to the Biogas Sector," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(17), pages 1-20, August.
    10. Nicolò Golinucci & Nicolò Stevanato & Negar Namazifard & Mohammad Amin Tahavori & Lamya Adil Sulliman Hussain & Benedetta Camilli & Federica Inzoli & Matteo Vincenzo Rocco & Emanuela Colombo, 2022. "Comprehensive and Integrated Impact Assessment Framework for Development Policies Evaluation: Definition and Application to Kenyan Coffee Sector," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-19, April.

    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. Giovanni Ferrari & Andrea Pezzuolo & Abdul-Sattar Nizami & Francesco Marinello, 2020. "Bibliometric Analysis of Trends in Biomass for Bioenergy Research," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(14), pages 1-21, July.
    2. Giovanni Ferrari & Federico Ioverno & Marco Sozzi & Francesco Marinello & Andrea Pezzuolo, 2021. "Land-Use Change and Bioenergy Production: Soil Consumption and Characterization of Anaerobic Digestion Plants," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-14, July.
    3. Vanessa Burg & Farzin Golzar & Gillianne Bowman & Stefanie Hellweg & Ramin Roshandel, 2021. "Symbiosis opportunities between food and energy system: The potential of manure‐based biogas as heating source for greenhouse production," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 25(3), pages 648-662, June.
    4. Kamila Klimek & Magdalena Kapłan & Serhiy Syrotyuk & Nikolay Bakach & Nikolay Kapustin & Ryszard Konieczny & Jakub Dobrzyński & Kinga Borek & Dorota Anders & Barbara Dybek & Agnieszka Karwacka & Grzeg, 2021. "Investment Model of Agricultural Biogas Plants for Individual Farms in Poland," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-30, November.
    5. Bekkering, J. & Hengeveld, E.J. & van Gemert, W.J.T. & Broekhuis, A.A., 2015. "Will implementation of green gas into the gas supply be feasible in the future?," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 409-417.
    6. Bacenetti, Jacopo & Sala, Cesare & Fusi, Alessandra & Fiala, Marco, 2016. "Agricultural anaerobic digestion plants: What LCA studies pointed out and what can be done to make them more environmentally sustainable," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 179(C), pages 669-686.
    7. Theresa Menzel & Peter Neubauer & Stefan Junne, 2020. "Role of Microbial Hydrolysis in Anaerobic Digestion," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-29, October.
    8. Pierie, F. & van Someren, C.E.J. & Benders, R.M.J. & Bekkering, J. & van Gemert, W.J.Th. & Moll, H.C., 2015. "Environmental and energy system analysis of bio-methane production pathways: A comparison between feedstocks and process optimizations," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 160(C), pages 456-466.
    9. Lombardi, Lidia & Francini, Giovanni, 2020. "Techno-economic and environmental assessment of the main biogas upgrading technologies," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 156(C), pages 440-458.
    10. Yang Yang & Ji-Qin Ni & Wanbin Zhu & Guanghui Xie, 2019. "Life Cycle Assessment of Large-scale Compressed Bio-natural Gas Production in China: A Case Study on Manure Co-digestion with Corn Stover," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-16, January.
    11. Kadam, Rahul & Panwar, N.L., 2017. "Recent advancement in biogas enrichment and its applications," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 892-903.
    12. Hakawati, Rawan & Smyth, Beatrice M. & McCullough, Geoffrey & De Rosa, Fabio & Rooney, David, 2017. "What is the most energy efficient route for biogas utilization: Heat, electricity or transport?," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 206(C), pages 1076-1087.
    13. Lauer, Markus & Leprich, Uwe & Thrän, Daniela, 2020. "Economic assessment of flexible power generation from biogas plants in Germany's future electricity system," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 1471-1485.
    14. Pierie, F. & Bekkering, J. & Benders, R.M.J. & van Gemert, W.J.Th. & Moll, H.C., 2016. "A new approach for measuring the environmental sustainability of renewable energy production systems: Focused on the modelling of green gas production pathways," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 162(C), pages 131-138.
    15. Zhu, Tong & Curtis, John & Clancy, Matthew, 2019. "Promoting agricultural biogas and biomethane production: Lessons from cross-country studies," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 1-1.
    16. Luo, Tao & Khoshnevisan, Benyamin & Huang, Ruyi & Chen, Qiu & Mei, Zili & Pan, Junting & Liu, Hongbin, 2020. "Analysis of revolution in decentralized biogas facilities caused by transition in Chinese rural areas," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    17. Soha, Tamás & Papp, Luca & Csontos, Csaba & Munkácsy, Béla, 2021. "The importance of high crop residue demand on biogas plant site selection, scaling and feedstock allocation – A regional scale concept in a Hungarian study area," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    18. Strzalka, Rafal & Schneider, Dietrich & Eicker, Ursula, 2017. "Current status of bioenergy technologies in Germany," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 801-820.
    19. Budzianowski, Wojciech M., 2016. "A review of potential innovations for production, conditioning and utilization of biogas with multiple-criteria assessment," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 1148-1171.
    20. Herbes, Carsten & Halbherr, Verena & Braun, Lorenz, 2018. "Factors influencing prices for heat from biogas plants," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 221(C), pages 308-318.

    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:gam:jeners:v:12:y:2019:i:17:p:3287-:d:261172. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.