Determination the Environmental Performance of Biogas Production from Cattle Manure via Life Cycle Assessment
Abstract
This study aims to evaluate the environmental impacts of biogas production from cattle manure in an anaerobic digestion plant (ADP) using the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology. The LCA analysis adopts a cradle-to-gate system boundary, with the functional unit defined as “1 m³ of biogas produced” in the ADP. Life cycle inventory data for this functional unit was obtained from the Ecoinvent database (v3.10). Life cycle impact assessment were carried out using two methods: CML-IA v3.10 and ReCiPe 2016 Midpoint (H) v1.09, within the licensed SimaPro 9.6.0 PhD software. A sensitivity analysis was also performed to examine the influence of varying transportation distances for cattle manure collection on the overall environmental impacts. The LCA analysis results indicate that operational activities in the ADP and the associated energy requirements significantly contribute to impact categories such as GWP, AP, and EP. Furthermore, it has been observed that the construction phase of the ADP has significant impacts on all ecotoxicity impact categories examined in the CML-IA and ReCiPe impact assessment method. The sensitivity analysis highlights that increasing the renewables energy source usage in the electricity generation mix profile has reduction effect on environmental impacts. Finally, relevant practitioners need to focus on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and ecotoxicity impacts to improve the environmental sustainability performance of biogas production systems.
Keywords
Anaerobic digestion, Biogas production, Cattle manure, Life Cycle Assessment
Supporting Institution
This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
Ethical Statement
The author declares that this study complies with Research and Publication Ethics.
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