Assessing the total theoretical, and financially viable, resource of biomethane for injection to a natural gas network in a region

Richard O'Shea, David M. Wall, Ian Kilgallon, James D. Browne and Jerry D. Murphy

Applied Energy, 2017, vol. 188, issue C, 237-256

Abstract: The total theoretical biomethane resource of cattle slurry and grass silage in Ireland was estimated using the most up to date spatially explicit data available. The cattle slurry resource (9.6PJ) was predominantly found in southern and north-eastern regions while the grass silage resource (128.4PJ) was more concentrated in western regions. The total biomethane resource of cattle slurry and grass silage was equivalent to 6% and 76% of total natural gas consumption in Ireland in 2014/15, respectively. A sequential optimisation model was run to determine where to source cattle slurry and grass silage from, for 42 potential biomethane plant locations in Ireland. The concept was to maximise plant net present value (NPV) and develop locations in order of plant profitability. The impact of plant size, grass silage price, volatile solids ratio (VSR) of grass silage to cattle slurry, and incentive per unit energy of biomethane was assessed in 81 separate scenarios. The results indicated that total biomethane production from plants with a positive NPV ranged from 3.51PJ/a to 12.19PJ/a, considerably less than the total resource. The levelised cost of energy (LCOE) of plants was also calculated and ranged from ca. 50.2€/MWh to ca. 109€/MWh depending on the various plant parameters. LCOE decreased with increased plant size and ratio of grass silage to cattle slurry. The relationship between grass silage price and LCOE was assessed. In the median scenario (33€/twwt grass silage, VSR of 4, 75,000twwt/a plant size, 60€/MWh incentive) cattle slurry was sourced within 6.4km of the facility while grass silage was sourced within 10.5km of the facility. A high level assessment of the carbon dioxide intensity of biomethane from the median scenario was conducted and showed a potential greenhouse gas reduction of 74–79% when compared to natural gas.

Keywords: Biomethane; Optimisation; Grass silage; Slurry; Gas grid; Resource assessment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (28)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261916317524
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:appene:v:188:y:2017:i:c:p:237-256

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405891/bibliographic
http://www.elsevier. ... 405891/bibliographic

DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2016.11.121

Access Statistics for this article

Applied Energy is currently edited by J. Yan

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