Costs to Reduce the Human Health Toxicity of Biogas Engine Emissions

Alberto Benato and Alarico Macor
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Alberto Benato: Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Padova, 35131 Padova, Italy
Alarico Macor: Department of Engineering and Management, University of Padova, 36100 Vicenza, Italy

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 19, 1-17

Abstract: The anaerobic digestion of biodegradable substrates and waste is a well-known process that can be used worldwide to produce a renewable fuel called biogas. At the time of writing, the most widespread way of using biogas is its direct usage in combined heat and power internal combustion engines (CHP-ICEs) to generate electricity and heat. However, the combustion process generates emissions, which in turn have an impact on human health. Therefore, there is a need to: (i) measure the ICE emissions (both regulated and unregulated), (ii) compute the impact on human health, (iii) identify the substances with the highest impact and (iv) calculate the avoided damage to human health per Euro of investment in technology able to abate the specific type of pollutant. To this end, the authors conducted an experimental campaign and selected as a test case a 999 kW el biogas internal combustion engine. Then, the collected data, which included both regulated and unregulated emissions, were used to calculate the harmfulness to human health and identify the more impactful compounds. Thus, combining the results of the impact analysis on human health and the outcomes of a market analysis, the avoided damage to human health per Euro of investment in an abatement technology was computed. In this manner, a single parameter, expressed in DALY € −1 , provided clear information on the costs to reduce each disability-adjusted life year (DALY). The impact analysis on human health, which was performed using the Health Impact Assessment, showed that NO x was the main contributor to damage to human health (approximately 91% of the total), followed by SO x (6.5%), volatile organic compounds (1.4%) and CO (0.7%). Starting from these outcomes, the performed investigation showed that the technology that guarantees the maximum damage reduction per unit of cost is the denitrification system or the oxidizing converter, depending on whether the considered plant is already in-operation or newly built. This is an unexpected conclusion considering that the most impacting emission is the NO x .

Keywords: internal combustion engines; regulated biogas emissions; unregulated biogas emissions; health impact assessment; avoided health damage cost (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: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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