Energy and Nutrients’ Recovery in Anaerobic Digestion of Agricultural Biomass: An Italian Perspective for Future Applications

Federico Battista, Nicola Frison and David Bolzonella
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Federico Battista: Department of Biotechnology, University of Verona, Strada Le Grazie 15, I-37134 Verona, Italy
Nicola Frison: Department of Biotechnology, University of Verona, Strada Le Grazie 15, I-37134 Verona, Italy
David Bolzonella: Department of Biotechnology, University of Verona, Strada Le Grazie 15, I-37134 Verona, Italy

Energies, 2019, vol. 12, issue 17, 1-13

Abstract: Anaerobic digestion (AD) is the most adopted biotechnology for the valorization of agricultural biomass into valuable products like biogas and digestate, a renewable fertilizer. This paper illustrates in the first part the actual situation of the anaerobic digestion sector in Italy, including the number of plants, their geographical distribution, the installed power and the typical feedstock used. In the second part, a future perspective, independent of the actual incentive scheme, is presented. It emerged that Italy is the second European country for the number of anaerobic digestion plants with more than 1500 units for a total electricity production of about 1400 MW el . More than 60% of them are in the range of 200 kW–1 MW installed power. Almost 70% of the plants are located in the northern part of the Country where intensive agriculture and husbandry are applied. Most of the plants are now using energy crops in the feedstock. The future perspectives of the biogas sector in Italy will necessarily consider a shift from power generation to biomethane production, and an enlargement of the portfolio of possible feedstocks, the recovery of nutrients from digestate in a concentrated form, and the expansion of the AD sector to southern regions. Power to gas and biobased products will complete the future scenario.

Keywords: anaerobic digestion; biomethane potential tests; Italy; biogas; manure; energy crops; agriculture residues; digestate (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

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