Topic

Out of all local available residuals, green waste in municipal responsibility turned out to be the easiest to locate and collect. At the same time the amounts of municipal green waste of the region with the highest potential were below the efficient break-even point. Compared to the concepts carried out in the Micro-Biogas joint project a more costly and technically elaborate approach for the use of municipal green waste, are high-duty units. The third alternative is, to bring fresh public green waste to existing biogas plants although an enormous logistical effort is needed.

Aims

The efficient use of available biomass potential is necessary to achieve political climate protection targets and to overcome dependence on raw fossil materials. Although biomass production has increased significantly, there is still a series of unused potential, particularly in local communities and administrative districts. The reasons for the currently low energy utilization of residual biomass materials like landscape conservation materials or municipal green waste are diverse –one reason is the lack of profitability using locally accumulated amounts of biomass due to high transportation costs. The project „Micro-Biogas” wanted to determine the potential of biomass and develop concepts of decentralized biogas production.

Measures

ZEE

Technical concepts were developed for administrative districts which showed the economic possibility to convert distributed biomass (e.g. green waste) in one or several small and decentralized biogas digesters into biogas, which is then transported directly to the place of use. In order to apply the same concepts to other communities, it was very important to analyze the socio-economic conditions and effects of such projects to ensure a durable integration of the concepts and relationship with the actors. Additionally, ecological aspects such as greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) and biodiversity were explicitly included during potential surveys, the design of concepts, and the final analysis.

IÖW

• AP 1: Technology Analysis, IÖW
• AP 2: Assessment of biomass potential based on ecological considerations, University Hohenheim
• AP 3: Energy balance and carbon footprint, IÖW
• AP 4: Evaluation of economic efficiency, value creation and employment, IÖW
• AP 5: Analysis of the stakeholder structure and the interests, ZEE, WFG
• AP 6: Stakeholder-oriented selection of a concept, ZEE, WFG
• AP 7: Analysis of using grass in existing biogas plants, IÖW, ZEE, University Hohenheim, WFG
• AP 8: Transferability Analysis ZEE, IÖW, University Hohenheim

Focus

IÖW

Technology analysis, energy balance, carbon footprint, evaluation of economic efficiency, value creation and employment

More informations

www.uni-hohenheim.de
www.energie-zentrum.com