Unit Cost of Energy, Obtained by the Methane Fermentation Technology of Agricultural Biomass Conversion

Abstract

Production of agricultural products results in appearance of a considerable amount of biomass residuals, which can be used as raw material for production of different kinds of energy. It can be differently utilized, obtaining different energy products. Development of the methodology of efficient utilization of agricultural production residuals for energy purposes is complicated by the fact that the biomass differs by its kind and origin, processing technologies and capacity of processing enterprises, etc. These issues should be solved separately for each kind of biomass, way of processing and production capacities. Methane fermentation is one of the efficient methods to converse biomass into energy products. Product of the fermentation process is biogas, which can be used as fuel for internal combustion engines, operating in cogeneration regime. Usually, droppings of animals and poultry are used as primary raw material for such processes, because its utilization is ecologically and economically needed. Under such conditions, it is possible to supply a minimum unit costs of the obtained energy. Generally, energy unit costs is calculated as a ratio of total expenses, minus costs of by-products and additional financial revenues, and amount of produced energy. The indicator will substantially depend on enterprise’s capacity, kind of anaerobic fermentation process, primary raw material. Methane fermentation produces biogas and large amount of organic matter, which can be specially processed and used as high quality organic fertilizer. The mentioned technology can supply high energy efficiency, comparing to other kinds of biomass utilization. Results of the calculations prove efficiency of operation of biogas installation with cogeneration module, costs of electric energy, produced on it, constitutes 0.012 EURO kWh⁻¹ and thermal energy—0.003 EURO MJ⁻¹. The price is almost six and four times lower than market price, respectively.