IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/renene/v130y2019icp920-929.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Potential of renewable methane by anaerobic digestion from existing plant stock – An economic reflection of an Austrian region

Author

Listed:
  • Stürmer, Bernhard
  • Novakovits, Philipp
  • Luidolt, Alexander
  • Zweiler, Richard

Abstract

The importance of natural gas as a primary energy source is expected to increase significantly in Europe. However, a rising consumption of natural gas leads to increased import dependency, while greenhouse gas emissions are only reduced by a fraction. Renewable methane, as could be produced by biogas and sewage treatment plants, offers an interesting substitute for natural gas. This article assesses the potentially available amount of methane from the existing plant stock within an Austrian region. It further analyses the production costs of existing biogas and sewage treatment plants according to type of upgrading and injection. The results show average production costs of 115.6 € MWh−1 (biogas plants), 150.4 € MWh−1 (sewage treatment plants) and 105.4 € MWh−1 (collective plant systems). Despite the higher production costs when compared to natural gas, expanding the domestic production capacity of renewable gas can be advantageous. Due to the regional increase in value-added, revenues resulting from the production of methane provide valuable income, especially in economically lagging regions. In order to maintain the infrastructure in future, it is necessary that renewables use the natural gas grid.

Suggested Citation

  • Stürmer, Bernhard & Novakovits, Philipp & Luidolt, Alexander & Zweiler, Richard, 2019. "Potential of renewable methane by anaerobic digestion from existing plant stock – An economic reflection of an Austrian region," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 920-929.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:renene:v:130:y:2019:i:c:p:920-929
    DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2018.07.017
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148118308024
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.renene.2018.07.017?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Imelda & Matthias Fripp & Michael J. Roberts, 2018. "Variable Pricing and the Cost of Renewable Energy," NBER Working Papers 24712, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Cludius, Johanna & Hermann, Hauke & Matthes, Felix Chr. & Graichen, Verena, 2014. "The merit order effect of wind and photovoltaic electricity generation in Germany 2008–2016: Estimation and distributional implications," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 302-313.
    3. Poeschl, Martina & Ward, Shane & Owende, Philip, 2010. "Prospects for expanded utilization of biogas in Germany," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 14(7), pages 1782-1797, September.
    4. Allen, Eoin & Wall, David M. & Herrmann, Christiane & Murphy, Jerry D., 2016. "A detailed assessment of resource of biomethane from first, second and third generation substrates," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 87(P1), pages 656-665.
    5. Peters, Jeffrey C., 2017. "Natural gas and spillover from the US Clean Power Plan into the Paris Agreement," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 41-47.
    6. Tricase, C. & Lombardi, M., 2009. "State of the art and prospects of Italian biogas production from animal sewage: Technical-economic considerations," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 477-485.
    7. Jürgen Blazejczak & Frauke G. Braun & Dietmar Edler & Wolf-Peter Schill, 2010. "Ausbau erneuerbarer Energien erhöht Wirtschaftsleistung in Deutschland," DIW Wochenbericht, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research, vol. 77(50), pages 10-16.
    8. Rácz, Viktor J. & Vestergaard, Niels, 2016. "Productivity and efficiency measurement of the Danish centralized biogas power sector," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 397-404.
    9. Zheng, Chong-wei & Xiao, Zi-niu & Peng, Yue-hua & Li, Chong-yin & Du, Zhi-bo, 2018. "Rezoning global offshore wind energy resources," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 129(PA), pages 1-11.
    10. ., 2018. "A natural experiment: the Americas," Chapters, in: A History of the Global Economy, chapter 14, pages 239-258, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    11. Ruble, Isabella, 2017. "European Union energy supply security: The benefits of natural gas imports from the Eastern Mediterranean," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 341-353.
    12. Crow, Daniel J.G. & Giarola, Sara & Hawkes, Adam D., 2018. "A dynamic model of global natural gas supply," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 218(C), pages 452-469.
    13. O'Shea, Richard & Wall, David M. & Kilgallon, Ian & Browne, James D. & Murphy, Jerry D., 2017. "Assessing the total theoretical, and financially viable, resource of biomethane for injection to a natural gas network in a region," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 188(C), pages 237-256.
    14. Imelda & Matthias Fripp & Michael J. Roberts, 2024. "Real-Time Pricing and the Cost of Clean Power," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 16(4), pages 100-141, November.
    15. Patterson, Tim & Esteves, Sandra & Dinsdale, Richard & Guwy, Alan, 2011. "An evaluation of the policy and techno-economic factors affecting the potential for biogas upgrading for transport fuel use in the UK," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 1806-1816, March.
    16. World Bank & Ecofys & Vivid Economics, "undated". "State and Trends of Carbon Pricing 2016," World Bank Publications - Reports 25160, The World Bank Group.
    17. Skovsgaard, Lise & Jacobsen, Henrik Klinge, 2017. "Economies of scale in biogas production and the significance of flexible regulation," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 77-89.
    18. Demirbas, Ayhan, 2009. "Political, economic and environmental impacts of biofuels: A review," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 86(Supplemen), pages 108-117, November.
    19. Haro, Pedro & Johnsson, Filip & Thunman, Henrik, 2016. "Improved syngas processing for enhanced Bio-SNG production: A techno-economic assessment," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 380-389.
    20. Richard S.J. Tol, 2018. "Energy and Climate," Working Paper Series 1618, Department of Economics, University of Sussex Business School.
    21. Rotunno, Paolo & Lanzini, Andrea & Leone, Pierluigi, 2017. "Energy and economic analysis of a water scrubbing based biogas upgrading process for biomethane injection into the gas grid or use as transportation fuel," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 102(PB), pages 417-432.
    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. Das, Bikashbindu & Mohanty, Kaustubha, 2019. "A review on advances in sustainable energy production through various catalytic processes by using catalysts derived from waste red mud," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 1791-1811.
    2. Schiochet Pinto, Luane & Pinheiro Neto, Daywes & de Leles Ferreira Filho, Anésio & Domingues, Elder Geraldo, 2020. "An alternative methodology for analyzing the risk and sensitivity of the economic viability for generating electrical energy with biogas from the anaerobic bio-digestion of vinasse," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 155(C), pages 1401-1410.

    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. Gimeno-Frontera, Beatriz & Mainar-Toledo, María Dolores & Sáez de Guinoa, Aitana & Zambrana-Vasquez, David & Zabalza-Bribián, Ignacio, 2018. "Sustainability of non-residential buildings and relevance of main environmental impact contributors' variability. A case study of food retail stores buildings," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 669-681.
    2. Erşen, Emre & Çelikpala, Mitat, 2019. "Turkey and the changing energy geopolitics of Eurasia," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 584-592.
    3. Butera, Giacomo & Jensen, Søren Højgaard & Clausen, Lasse Røngaard, 2019. "A novel system for large-scale storage of electricity as synthetic natural gas using reversible pressurized solid oxide cells," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 166(C), pages 738-754.
    4. Milchram, Christine & Hillerbrand, Rafaela & van de Kaa, Geerten & Doorn, Neelke & Künneke, Rolf, 2018. "Energy Justice and Smart Grid Systems: Evidence from the Netherlands and the United Kingdom," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 229(C), pages 1244-1259.
    5. Uusitalo, V. & Havukainen, J. & Soukka, R. & Väisänen, S. & Havukainen, M. & Luoranen, M., 2015. "Systematic approach for recognizing limiting factors for growth of biomethane use in transportation sector – A case study in Finland," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 479-488.
    6. Girma T. Chala & Abd Rashid Abd Aziz & Ftwi Y. Hagos, 2018. "Natural Gas Engine Technologies: Challenges and Energy Sustainability Issue," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-44, October.
    7. Majumdar, Debaleena & Pasqualetti, Martin J., 2019. "Analysis of land availability for utility-scale power plants and assessment of solar photovoltaic development in the state of Arizona, USA," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 1213-1231.
    8. 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.
    9. Darowicki, K. & Janicka, E. & Mielniczek, M. & Zielinski, A. & Gawel, L. & Mitzel, J. & Hunger, J., 2019. "The influence of dynamic load changes on temporary impedance in hydrogen fuel cells, selection and validation of the electrical equivalent circuit," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 251(C), pages 1-1.
    10. Weber, Ines & Wolff, Anna, 2018. "Energy efficiency retrofits in the residential sector – analysing tenants’ cost burden in a German field study," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 680-688.
    11. Reda, Francesco & Fatima, Zarrin, 2019. "Northern European nearly zero energy building concepts for apartment buildings using integrated solar technologies and dynamic occupancy profile: Focus on Finland and other Northern European countries," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 237(C), pages 598-617.
    12. Arteconi, Alessia & Del Zotto, Luca & Tascioni, Roberto & Cioccolanti, Luca, 2019. "Modelling system integration of a micro solar Organic Rankine Cycle plant into a residential building," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 251(C), pages 1-1.
    13. Keogh, Niamh & Corr, D. & Monaghan, R.F.D, 2022. "Biogenic renewable gas injection into natural gas grids: A review of technical and economic modelling studies," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).
    14. Jimenez-Navarro, Juan-Pablo & Kavvadias, Konstantinos & Filippidou, Faidra & Pavičević, Matija & Quoilin, Sylvain, 2020. "Coupling the heating and power sectors: The role of centralised combined heat and power plants and district heat in a European decarbonised power system," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 270(C).
    15. 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.
    16. Giulietti, Monica & Le Coq, Chloé & Willems, Bert & Anaya, Karim, 2019. "Smart Consumers in the Internet of Energy : Flexibility Markets & Services from Distributed Energy Resources," Other publications TiSEM 2edb43b5-bbd6-487d-abdf-7, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    17. Padi, Richard Kingsley & Douglas, Sean & Murphy, Fionnuala, 2023. "Techno-economic potentials of integrating decentralised biomethane production systems into existing natural gas grids," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 283(C).
    18. De Clercq, Djavan & Wen, Zongguo & Caicedo, Luis & Cao, Xin & Fan, Fei & Xu, Ruifei, 2017. "Application of DEA and statistical inference to model the determinants of biomethane production efficiency: A case study in south China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 205(C), pages 1231-1243.
    19. Andreas Eder & Bernhard Mahlberg & Bernhard Stürmer, 2021. "Measuring and explaining productivity growth of renewable energy producers: An empirical study of Austrian biogas plants," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 48(1), pages 37-63, February.
    20. Grzegorz Piechota & Bartłomiej Igliński, 2021. "Biomethane in Poland—Current Status, Potential, Perspective and Development," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-32, March.

    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:eee:renene:v:130:y:2019:i:c:p:920-929. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/renewable-energy .

    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.