Regional acceptance of biogas power plants - suitability and availability of energy-plants

Status

completed

Summary

In this project a tool was developed for the planning and the realization of optimized biogas plants, especially for the digestion of energy plants. The tool offers answers for the questions of the suitability and the acceptance of energy plants and the acceptance of biogas plants in the neighborhood.

In the task "Availability of Energy Plants for the Biogas Production" an overview of the usage of the farmland in Austria and the potential for the optional usage for the cultivation of energy plants for the biogas production in the 87 production areas in Austria was given. The calculation was based on the Austrian area used for farming, from which those areas have been subtracted which are used for growing animal feedstock. Manure and grassland have also been calculated as additionally available substrate for biogas production.

In the task "Suitability of Energy Plants for Anaerobic Digestion" the factors influencing the degradability of energy plants were aggregated to a useful evaluation in this work. For this purpose the most important variables influencing the different process steps of the biogas production were listed and grouped in order to obtain a comprehensive system of evaluation. The selected energy plants were compared with the calculation procedure of the fuzzy composite programming and evaluated. The existing study represents a clear evaluation rule for energy plants which does not only consider the methane output alone.

The "Acceptance of Energy Plants and Biogas Plants as Such" was investigated in terms of ecological, economic and socio-economic aspects. The assessment of the energy plants which are used for the production of biogas depends on regional, horticultural, technical and even personal aspects. Most important are the plant specific demands on the location, which gives information about which plant could be cultivated in which location. Further it is important to know if the digestion of the material makes sense.

For the economic comparison a method for an over viewing categorization of the single variations was developed to help the farmers, the owner of the biogas plant or other groups of interest in their decision which energy plants are the best.

For the socio-economic questions a questionnaire was established which is available as download together with the handbook and a help for interpretation for interested people on the internet page www.biogasakzeptanz.at. There you can find all the other results of the project as an information database or as interactive calculation tool.

The established tool was tested in Upper Austria on a biogas plant for the digestion of energy plants being currently under construction. The results have been shown within a well attended presentation in the municipality of the model project.

Project leader (Contact address)

DI Dr. Werner Ahrer
Profactor Produktionsforschungs GmbH
Im Stadtgut A2, 4407 Steyr-Gleink
Tel: +43 (0)7252 / 885-400
Fax: +43 (0)7252 / 885-101
E-Mail: werner.ahrer@profactor.at
Internet: Profactor

Project partners

BOKU Wien, Institut für angewandte Mikrobiologie (Werkvertragspartner)
STUDIA Studienzentrum für Internationale Analysen (Werkvertragspartner)
Stadtgut Steyr GmbH (Werkvertragspartner)
BLT Wieselburg (Kooperation)