Exploring profitability of bioeconomy paths: Dimethyl ether from biogas as case study

Francisco M. Baena-Moreno, Miriam Gonzalez-Castaño, Harvey Arellano-García and T.R. Reina

Energy, 2021, vol. 225, issue C

Abstract: Herein a novel path is analysed for its economic viability to synergize the production of biomethane and dimethyl ether from biogas. We conduct a profitability analysis based on the discounted cash flow method. The results revealed an unprofitable process with high cost/revenues ratios. Profitable scenarios would be reached by setting prohibitive DME prices (1983–5566 €/t) or very high feed-in tariffs subsidies (95.22 €/MWh in the best case scenario). From the cost reduction side, the analysis revealed the need of reducing investment costs. For this purpose, we propose a percentage of investment as incentive scheme. Although the size increase benefits cost/revenues ratio, only the 1000 m3/h biogas plant size will reach profitability if 90% of the investment is subsidized. A sensitivity analysis to check the influence of some important economical parameters is also included. Overall this study evidences the big challenge that our society faces in the way towards a circular economy.

Keywords: Biomethane production; Biogas upgrading; CO2 utilization; Green energy production; Waste valorization; Dimethyl ether (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544221004795
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:225:y:2021:i:c:s0360544221004795

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2021.120230

Access Statistics for this article

Energy is currently edited by Henrik Lund and Mark J. Kaiser

More articles in Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().