Short summary
This project aims at developing a comprehensive assessment system
for biogas production from energy crops, which is based on detailed
data for Austria and the use of efficient production frontier
benchmarking, using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). The ultimate
goal is to develop a quality label biogas.
Goals
The project “Development of an Assessment System for Biogas
Plants” tries to help avoiding sub-optimal paths in the
field of biogas technology diffusion that are common during the
introduction phase of new technologies. To achieve this goal
detailed data on biogas plants in Austria are collected. The
data are then used for a quality assessment system that is based
on Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), a popular method to evaluate
the relative production efficiency of specific plants based on
a productivity frontier formed by the most efficient plants.
The assessment system should clearly define all the steps involved
in the production chain of biogas from energy crops, with suitable
parameters that can be used for an effective characterization
and objective comparison of all available processes and biogas
plants, respectively. In the medium term, this benchmarking should
help to establish a quality label for biogas plants (“Gütesiegel
Biogas”) that will set quality standards as an orientation
for the market.
For the information transfer to practice, it will be necessary
to involve all relevant institutions, projects, networks, and
actors. The planned reNet platform biogas
(Renewable Energy Network Austria) should use the already existing, but so
far fragmentary information network of interested parties and
develop it into an independent institution (i.e. a center for
testing, evaluating, and consulting biogas plants). One of the
main goals of the project is that this independent center will
be self-supporting.
Scope
The extraction of biogas from energy crops comprises several
scientific disciplines: agricultural technology, biotechnology,
process engineering, energy economics, and agricultural economics.
The complex task of developing an assessment system for biogas
plants will therefore be addressed in connection with other projects
dealing with biogas.
Basic process engineering and structural problems are tackled
in the 19 subprojects that form part of the “Renewable
Energy Network”, where all the prior problems concerning
the fermentation of energy crops will be handled in relation
with three newly constructed, large scale demonstration plants
in Lower Austria (Reidling), Burgenland (Strem), and Styria (Hartberg).
Leading research institutes and companies are participating in
this effort. Further data will be provided through dissertations
at the University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences BOKU and
in the course of this project. Also, already existing specific
data sets resulting from earlier targeted investigations and
projects in this field will be taken into account.
In the EU
project "CROPGEN" an
European research consortium deals with the specific fundamentals
of the procedural steps for crop fermentation in the laboratory,
in pilot projects, and in practice. In addition the international
(EU) research projects "AMONCO" and "ENERDEC" as
well as several national projects (funded by BMLFUW, ÖWAV,
and the federal province of Vienna) conduct basic works concerning
process engineering.
The necessary systematic acquisition of data characterizing
the processes of existing and planned biogas plants is the issue
of the already established international biogas networks “ADNett2”, “BIOEXELL”, "BFC-Net“,
and “IEA
Task 37-Biogas & Landfill Gas”. Besides, numerous
informal contacts to operators, construction companies, and planners
of biogas plants exist. Furthermore, a project on behalf of the
Austrian Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment
and Water Management (BMLFUW) and the federal province of Upper
Austria is concerned with a specific monitoring program of biogas
plants in Upper Austria.
The works of this project concentrate primarily on the design
of an assessment system for biogas plants. First the technical,
economic, ecological, and social parameters significant for the
characterization of biogas plants have to be identified. These
parameters, after defining certain minimum requirements, will
enter the benchmarking study in order to enable a rapid assessment
of the relative performance and quality of all the process steps
involved in a biogas plant. On the basis of these benchmarks
a quality label biogas production from energy crops should be
developed and introduced in Austria in the medium term.
Project organisation
The project is organized in eight different work packages:
