Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
and air pressure. In order to save fuel and to reduce soil compaction on the
field, it is recommended to have as low tyre pressure as possible. On the
other hand, it is recommended to have high tyre pressure on roads. Thus,
several tractor and truck manufacturers are currently working on automatic
tyre pressure adaptation systems. Furthermore, for digestate application,
new pipe systems have been developed that allow pumping the digestate
directly up to 1 km to the tractors on the fields; this negates the need for
heavy tanker trailers.
The feedstock type also influences auxiliary equipment at the biogas
plant, namely the requirements of eventual safety equipment for avoiding
the spreading of pathogens. The use of waste materials often requires special
hygienic measures, for example sanitation of the feedstock at higher
temperatures for a certain period of time. The feedstock transport vehicles
for transporting waste materials also need to be cleaned as mandated by
national legislation. In centralized co-digestion plants, a common system
largely used in Denmark where feedstock is supplied from several livestock
farmers, the cleaning and disinfection of transport vehicles is an important
issue in order to avoid spreading pathogens and diseases from one farm to
another.
Finally, every biogas plant needs equipment for measuring mass flows; this
usually includes truck scales or mass flow meters for pumpable feedstock.
The inputs and outputs of biogas plants need to be standardized for
management of revenue. It is mandated to keep records of the mass flows for
electricity feed-in tariffs systems or for gate fees for waste treatment.
A very different approach is transport through the wastewater collection
system, as in some parts of North America, where organic kitchen waste is
sized in garbage disposal units installed under kitchen basins (EPA, 2012).
The waste is then conveyed to a wastewater treatment plant, which may
include an AD facility. About 50% of households in the USA use such
waste disposal units. This system is not implemented in Europe due to
infrastructure problems related to the capacity of wastewater treatment
plants, high water consumption and problems related to further treatment
and use of digestate.
2.4.2 Influence of biomass logistics on location of the biogas
plant
The choice of location for setting up a biogas plant is determined by the
feedstock logistics and the availability of feedstock. Distances of feedstock
supply and road access are the main elements to consider when selecting the
location of a biogas plant. Along with these, other general aspects that
should be considered include
Search WWH ::
Custom Search