Analysis of the economic viability of the use of biogas produced in wastewater treatment plants to generate electrical energy

Laura Dardot Campello (), Regina Mambeli Barros (), Geraldo Lúcio Tiago Filho () and Ivan Felipe Silva Santos ()
Additional contact information
Laura Dardot Campello: Federal University of Itajubá
Regina Mambeli Barros: Federal University of Itajubá
Geraldo Lúcio Tiago Filho: Federal University of Itajubá
Ivan Felipe Silva Santos: Federal University of Itajubá, (Engenharia da Energia da Universidade Federal de Itajubá)

Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, 2021, vol. 23, issue 2, No 67, 2614-2629

Abstract: Abstract Basic sanitation in developing countries such as Brazil still needs many investments today to meet the population appropriately. Therefore, the study of technologies that can facilitate the deployment of sewage treatment systems becomes essential. In this sense, the objective of this study was to evaluate the energy potential and the economic viability of the operation efficiency of biogas from anaerobic digestion of sewage and sewage sludge in wastewater treatment plants in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. Economic analysis was considered for the local legislation that establishes a system of energy compensation for distributed generation. The potential for reducing emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) with the application of the methane recovery system was always estimated. For the biogas production calculations, real data on the volume of treated sewage and the population served with sanitary sewage were presented in a report by the local authority. The results indicated that the methane recovery system is feasible in most cities above 50,000 inhabitants, 86% of the municipalities with a population between 50,000 and 150,000 inhabitants, 67% of the municipalities with a population between 150,000 and 250,000 inhabitants and 100% of the municipalities with a population exceeding 250,000 inhabitants; these showed positive NPV and IRR, greater than the rate of attractiveness (8%). The time needed for return on investment (payback) in municipalities where the investment was feasible was 1.25 years for cities with a population of more than 250,000 inhabitants, 4.49 years for cities with a population between 150,000 and 250,000 inhabitants, 2.08 years for cities with a population between 50,000 and 150,000 inhabitants and 7.97 years for cities with a population of less than 50,000 inhabitants. In addition, a potential for electricity generation in the state of Minas Gerais of approximately 47,140 MWh per year and a potential reduction in emissions of GHG close to 325,800 tCO2eq/year with the deployment of the system was identified.

Keywords: Anaerobic treatment of sewage; Biogas plants; Sludge; Methane energy recovery (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://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10668-020-00689-y Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

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:spr:endesu:v:23:y:2021:i:2:d:10.1007_s10668-020-00689-y

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/10668

DOI: 10.1007/s10668-020-00689-y

Access Statistics for this article

Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development is currently edited by Luc Hens

More articles in Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().