Title:
A Challenge in the Waste Sector: The Use of Organic Urban Waste for Biomethane Production
Author(s):
Rutz, D., Mergner, R., Janssen, R., Hoffstede, U., Hahn, H., Kulišić, B., Bosnjak, R., Kruhek, M., Ribic, B., Sinčič, D., Surowiec, M., Nogueira, M.A., Duarte, F., do Céu Albuquerque, M., Martins, M., Dzene, I., Niklass, M., Meissner, E., Kalandyk, K., Zapora, D.
Document(s):
Paper
Poster
Abstract:
The simultaneous energetic use of organic waste, such as municipal solid waste (MSW) and catering/food waste, and the creation of a closed nutrient cycle is one of the main advantages of anaerobic digestion (AD) biogas plants as they turn waste materials to “desirable” feedstock. When compared to other treatment opportunities of the organic fraction of MSW, AD has several advantages. In comparison to waste incineration plants, AD plants usually need lower investments and the distances for feedstock transport are generally shorter. Nutrients can be easier recovered for agricultural production and wet feedstock does not have to be dried which is required for incineration. Similar to household scale or industrial scale composting, AD processes also recover nutrients, but the energy content of the biomass is not utilised. In many European regions waste management is still a large problem and only few biogas plants use organic waste for biogas production. Insufficient waste management practices are more dominant in many urban areas. At the same time, European countries have to comply with the Landfill Directive 1999/31/EC and with the Waste Framework Directive 2008/98/EC to considerably reduce land filling of the biodegradable part of MSW. They also have to comply with the Renewable Energy Directive (RED) 2009/28/EC. However the implementation of European targets is still lacking behind. AD from waste has the potential to contribute to the European targets of the above mentioned directives. Adjacent upgrading to biomethane quality and grid injection in the natural gas distribution network is an opportunity to efficiently use renewable energy in urban areas. This approach, Waste-to-Biomethane (WtB), is promoted by the UrbanBiogas project (Urban waste for biomethane grid injection and transport in urban areas; May 2011 – April 2014) which is supported by the Intelligent Energy for Europe Programme of the European Union. The objective is to prepare European target cities for the production of biomethane from urban waste which will be fed into the natural gas grids and optionally used for transport. The target cities are: City of Zagreb (Croatia), Municipality of Abrantes (Portugal), City of Graz (Austria), City of Gdynia and Rzeszów (Poland), and North Vidzeme Region including the City of Valmiera (Latvia). Core of the project is elaboration of five WtB concepts for the target cities. The present paper gives an overview on options for the use of organic waste for biogas production and presents the approaches in the target cities to promote the WtB concepts. It furthermore addresses the main challenges faced during the development of the concepts, as the interaction with different stakeholders from the waste, energy and public sectors are very difficult. In addition, these projects largely depend on the political support that is influenced by public perception and awareness. The present paper is an update of the paper from Rutz et al. (2012) [9].
Keywords:
biogas, biomethane, bio-waste, cities, waste-to-biomethane
Topic:
Biomass Policies, Markets and Sustainability
Subtopic:
Biomass strategies and policies
Event:
21st European Biomass Conference and Exhibition
Session:
5AV.3.13
Pages:
1908 - 1916
ISBN:
978-88-89407-53-0
Paper DOI:
10.5071/21stEUBCE2013-5AV.3.13
Price:
FREE
