Where is biogas produced

Sustainable harvest rates vary depending on the crop grown, soil type, and climate factors. Taking into account sustainable harvest rates, the U. Crop residues are usually co-digested with other organic waste because their high lignin content makes them difficult to break down. With little to no processing, biogas can be burned on-site to heat buildings and power boilers or even the digester itself.

Biogas can be used for combined heat and power CHP operations, or biogas can simply be turned into electricity using a combustion engine, fuel cell, or gas turbine, with the resulting electricity being used on-site or sold onto the electric grid.

Digestate is the nutrient-rich solid or liquid material remaining after the digestion process; it contains all the recycled nutrients that were present in the original organic material but in a form more readily available for plants and soil building. The composition and nutrient content of the digestate will depend on the feedstock added to the digester. Liquid digestate can be easily spray-applied to farms as fertilizer, reducing the need to purchase synthetic fertilizers.

Solid digestate can be used as livestock bedding or composted with minimal processing. Recently, the biogas industry has taken steps to create a digestate certification program, to assure safety and quality control of digestate.

With biogas systems, dairies, farms, and industry can reduce operational costs using their own organic wastes to power their equipment and buildings.

Fair Oaks Dairy in Indiana produces 1. Some of the biogas is upgraded to CNG and used to power trailers delivering milk to Fair Oaks processing plants, reducing their use of diesel fuel by 1. Renewable natural gas RNG , or biomethane, is biogas that has been refined to remove carbon dioxide, water vapor, and other trace gases so that it meets natural gas industry standards.

RNG can be injected into the existing natural gas grid including pipelines and used interchangeably with conventional natural gas. Natural gas conventional and renewable provides 26 percent of U. The remainder of natural gas is used for commercial purposes heating and cooking and for industrial ones. RNG has the potential to replace up to 10 percent of the natural gas used in the United States.

The fuel economy of CNG-powered vehicles is comparable to that of conventional gasoline vehicles and can be used in light- to heavy-duty vehicles. LNG is not as widely used as CNG because it is expensive to both produce and store, though its higher density makes LNG a better fuel for heavy-duty vehicles that travel long distances. To make the most of investments in fueling infrastructure, CNG and LNG are best suited for fleet vehicles that return to a base for refueling.

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory estimates RNG could replace five percent of the natural gas used to produce electricity and 56 percent of the natural gas used to produce vehicle fuel.

The RFS requires the blending of renewable fuels into the U. Currently about 10 percent of the gasoline supply is provided by renewable fuel, primarily ethanol. The RFS sets fuel volumes for a variety of fuel categories: biomass-based diesel, advanced biofuel, cellulosic biofuel, and renewable fuel as a whole.

Each category has a required minimum reduction in greenhouse gases. Cellulosic biofuels must be 60 percent less greenhouse gas-intensive than gasoline.

Currently, most of the cellulosic fuel volumes are being met through the use of RNG as a vehicle fuel. Biogas is produced when bacteria digest organic matter biomass in the absence of oxygen. This process is called anaerobic digestion. It occurs naturally anywhere from the within the digestive system to the depth of effluent ponds and can be reproduced artificially in engineered containers called digesters. Methane gas is particularly important as its high energy content can be used to produce energy.

Methane has 21 times the power of carbon dioxide to contribute to climate change. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".

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Powered by. The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional". The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. Biogas forms in and can be collected from municipal solid waste landfills and livestock manure holding ponds. Biogas can also be produced under controlled conditions in special tanks called anaerobic digesters.

The material remaining after anaerobic digestion is complete is called digestate, which is rich in nutrients and can be used as a fertilizer. Thermochemical conversion of biomass to biogas can be achieved through gasification. The U. Department of Energy supports research on biomass gasification for hydrogen production.

Biogas may qualify as a renewable fuel for electricity generation in state renewable portfolio standards. It also qualifies under the U.

Nearly all of the biogas now consumed in the United States is produced from anaerobic decomposition and used for electricity generation. Landfills for municipal solid waste are a source of biogas. Biogas is produced naturally by anaerobic bacteria in municipal solid waste landfills and is called landfill gas. Landfill gas with a high methane content can be dangerous to people and the environment because methane is flammable. Methane is also a strong greenhouse gas.

Biogas contains small amounts of hydrogen sulfide, a noxious and potentially toxic compound when in high concentrations.

In the United States, regulations under the Clean Air Act require municipal solid waste landfills of a certain size to install and operate a landfill gas collection and control system. Some landfills reduce landfill gas emissions by capturing and burning—or flaring—the landfill gas. Burning the methane in landfill gas produces CO 2 , but CO 2 is not as strong a greenhouse gas as methane.

Many landfills collect and treat landfill gas to remove CO 2 , water vapor, and hydrogen sulfide and use it to generate electricity or sell as it as a substitute for natural gas.