Document Type : Research Article

Authors

Renewable Energy Research Department, Niroo Research Institute (NRI), Tehran, Iran

10.30501/jree.2022.347330.1390

Abstract

In this study, the effect of digestate treatment after anaerobic digestion (AD) process in two scenarios have been analyzed for an industrial diary unit in the United States. The first scenario involves production of liquid fertilizer and compost while the other scenario lacks from such treatment process. Aspen Plus has been used to simulate the AD process and assessment of general properties of biogas and digestate. The results of technical analysis show insignificant change in the net power production from the CHP unit in scenario 1. The economic analysis, however, indicates the necessity of digestate treatment for AD systems to be profitable. Furthermore, the results of environmental analysis indicate the mitigation of about 93.4 kilotonnes of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in scenario 1, while an AD the scenario 2 saves only 12 kilotonnes of GHG emissions. In other words, digestate treatment has a more significant environmental impact than the power production and its profitability from CHP unit. The reason could be attributed to the enormous consumption of energy during production of chemical fertilizers where digestate treatment process (scenario 1) offsets the utilization of chemical fertilizers in agriculture industry.

Keywords

Main Subjects

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