Economics Of The Bioconversion Of Biomass To Methane And Other Vendable Products

This chapter highlights the sensitive cost factors (both technical and economic) which influence the profitability of anaerobic digestion yielding methane and other vendable products to the economics of energy production operative. A number of possibilities for vendable products and credits from anaerobic digestion have been suggested. Economic studies have been performed on the possibility of compressing the biogas and separating the carbon dioxide for sale, refeed of digester protein from dairy and steer fermentation, direct sale of digester solids as fertilizer, upgrading digester residues with supplemental nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium to produce “organic fertilizer,” and on-site use in marketing of electricity from digester-produced methane. The data were derived from pilot-scale studies that had been verified as applicable to consistent performance of the process over relatively long periods of time. The results has been developed from over 1000 scenarios which have been run using computer outputs generated with the modified program