SIXTH INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM NIKOLA TESLA

October 18 20, 2006, Belgrade, SASA, Serbia

Biogas Energy Instead of Waste
Nikola Rajakovi
1
, Milomir Kneevi
1

Abstract In the last century technical progress was
dominantly based on two energy sources, coal and oil. These
sources are limited and due to very intensive usage, reserve of
these sources are significantly reduced. Experts predict that with
current consumption these fuels will last between 80 and 100
years. This is why the renewable technology started to improve
so fast. One of the most important resources among renewables
is biomass. Biomass also include all organic residues as waste
from wood industry, agriculture, food industry etc. We can treat
this fuel in different ways. Today the most popular is the
combustion process, but pyrolyses and gasification during last
years have been getting more and more popular. Besides that
thermochemical utilization of biomass, biological and
biochemical conversion is of growing importance. This is the
point where biogas comes in. Biogas is produced during
anaerobic decomposition of biomass by different groups of
micro-organisms in a four step fermentation process. The
resulting product gas consist of methane (around 60%) and
carbon dioxide (around 40 vol%). Serbia is country of
agriculture and there are a lot of farms and the installation of
biogas power plants has the big potential. One of problems for
start-up biogas projects is of financial nature and some subsidies
are needed in the beginning.
Keywords biogas, organic waste, and biogas power plant,
subsidies
I. INTRODUCTION
Biogas technology is very promising for farmers because of
improved effectiveness. Waste material which previously was
unused now becomes an energy source. Biogas is produced in
anaerobic process by micro-organisms and this process is
called anaerobic digestion. In principle the substrate such as
animal manure, industrial waste or grass is mixed by a stirring
system and then brought into the fermenter. In fermenter,
without oxygen, bacteria start to raze organic material. This is
the process which consists of several phases. In the beginning
organic materials reduce in volume, then become acids and at
the end is methanogenisation where methanogenic bacteria
produce methane from substance from previous phases.
Besides methane, product of this process is also carbon
dioxide and also traces of nitrogen, oxygen and hydrogen
sulphide. Those are main components of biogas (see Table 1).
-----------
1
Nikola Rajakovi and Milomir Kneevi

are with the Faculty of
Electrical Engineering, Bulevar kralja Aleksandra 73, 11000
Belgrade, Serbia, E-mail: rajakovic@etf.bg.ac.yu
In process of getting biogas, we should take care about C:N
ratio. The optimal one is between 20 and 30. If there is more
C then N then bacteria spend all nitrogen and can not convert
all carbon to the methane. Also if ratio is lower, after bacteria
consume all carbon, it will start to produce ammoniac, which
kills bacteria. The process of biogas production take place in a
specially designed unit, digestor. Usually the temperature of
this process is 35C and decomposition of organic material is
finished after 20 days. This retention time is lower if
temperature is higher. In Table 1 the overview of potential for
producing biogas, from different sources, is shown.

Table I.
Average composition of biogas

Substance Percentage
CH
4
60 to 80%
CO
2
25 to 38%
H
2
S 0.05 to 0.5%
H
2
0 to 1%
N
2
0 to 7%
O
2
0 to 2%

Table II.
Biogas produced from different sources

Input material
Biogas produced per
tone of dry substance
Rest of kitchen oil 1038 m
3
Grass 520 700 m
3
Sugarcane 550 m
3
Pig manure 370 480 m
3

Vegetable waste 450 m
3

Chicken manure 450 m
3

Cattle manure 250 m
3


Calorific value of biogas is higher if percentage of methane
is higher. Biogas is quite similar with natural gas that is
extracted from the wells, but natural gas has higher calorific
value because contains various hydrocarbons such as ethane,
propane and butane. When gas is produced it can be treated in
several ways in order to convert into thermal or electric
energy. The very effective is the Combine Heat and Power
unit which will be described in the next chapter.
II. BIOGAS FOR ENERGY PURPOSES

As we mentioned before, biogas is produced from organic
materials which are treated in anaerobic condition. This
biogas later can be used for producing heat or electricity in
gas engine or gas turbine, depending of amount of biogas per
day. Either we convert biogas in gas engine or gas turbine,
process of producing biogas which we used for fuel in both
solutions is the same. First of all we mixed organic material
with water in ratio which depends of how substance is dry.
This liquid substance is going to the digestor. This is part of
biogas plant where process of digestion is done. The main
function of this part is to provide anaerobic conditions.
(Bio)material feeds in the digestor daily in some amount. This
material is mixed and process of anaerobic digestion is under
way in the next 15 days. This period is called the retention
time. During this period temperature in digestor should be
around 35 degrees C. If temperature is lower, retention time is
longer. When biogas is produced it is exported by pipe to the
storage, where process of desulphurization continues. After
this process, gas is prepared for the gas machine (engine or
turbine). Residue of inputs that comes out from the outlet after
the substrate is acted upon (slurry) can be in different forms
(solid fraction, fibrous material, and viscous fraction, liquid
and heavy solids). Slurry is pathogen free stabilized manure
that can be used to maintain soil fertility and enhance crop
production. Produced biogas now can be burned in the gas
engine or turbine. Which unit will be used depends of plant
size. For smaller units the gas engine is recommended. In the
gas engine biogas is burned and pistons are driving the
synchronous generator which is connected with the engine.
This is the classical principle the same as drive with inside
burning (OTO motor). Heat which is produced after burning is
used for thermal power in industry or district heating system.
The efficiency is between 85% and 95% (32-42% electric
efficiency). In this moment this technology is very practical
and popular in the world. Gas turbines are well known
machines which are commonly used in the industry. The
smallest, on the market available, gas turbine has an electrical
power output of about 1 MWel. By this fact the use is
acceptable only at the central units. Advantage of gas turbine
is that the exhausted gas results in a higher temperature range
then in the engine and enables the production of high grade
steam for industrial use. Efficiency of gas turbine is around
82% (28-36% electrical efficiency). In Figure 1 the scheme of
a farm biogas plant is shown.
Produced electricity is partially used for running the biogas
plant and partially to be delivered to the grid. One part of
thermal power is used in process of digestion for providing
continues temperature level in the digestor and rest can be
used in district heating system or for some industrial
consumers. It is very important that consumers which use heat
have to be close to the plant because hot water or low pressure
steam cannot be transported over longer distances.


Figure 1: Scheme of a farm biogas plant

III. BIOGAS PLANTS AND ECONOMIC SUBSIDES
Since last decade of previous century, biogas power plants
are in big expansion in the world. In Europe the number of
new plants increases every year. Main reason for this
expansion is the high financial support from authorities of
European Union aimed at renewable energy sources. There is
the target in energy policy to reach 22,1% of whole electricity
production from renewable sources until 2010. Biogas
applications are very attractive, because with producing
biogas we produce green energy and also reduce waste which
could be the source of high pollution (organic materials could
be a danger if they are not disposed properly, they can cause
bad smell,). In Europe the leaders in these technologies are
Germany and Great Britain, but in the last period Austria has
strong growth in this area.
When we look at investment and operational costs, we are
coming to the conclusion that the lowest economical price for
electricity from biogas is 0,08 Euro/kWh. If the price is lower
then there is no reasonable economy. In Austria this price is
between 0,103 and 0,163 Euro/kWh. The difference between
the market price and this price is covered by the government
by so called the feed in tariff. This is most popular incentive
for all renewable sources. Government supports producers 13
years with this price, and this is the period when they make
the pay back of all investments and also earn some money.
After this period there are no any subsidies and they are going
to the market and try to sell their products. This is not the only
way for subsidy implementations. There are also RES
obligations, tenders and fiscal incentives. Also the new system
of green certificates exist which is still in testing period. All
those systems we can split in two groups:

Instruments which are based on the required minimum
share (specified goals) of producing the electricity from
RES, but without guaranteed prices,
All energy produced from RES has guaranteed prices,
but there are no obligations that the total electricity
produced from RES is going to be bought.
In the first group are the tender scheme, and the system of
green certificates. In the tender schemes, the specific country
supports investments in new power plants based on RES, but
later they do not care for the electricity price. It is not so good
system and it is approved in UK where many plants had not
success. The better solution is the tender for electricity from
renewable energy sources, and then subsidies for produced
electricity.
The second system from the first group is the quota
obligation system which is relatively new and there is the
minimum share of renewables which is imposed on producers,
suppliers and consumers. This system is often combined with
the green certificate system. This is the system where
producers for each produced unit of electricity get the
certificate and then sell it independently of the electricity
market. This is good solution because electricity market is not
disturbed in such a way. Disadvantages in this approach are:
the implementation is very expensive and it is bad for small
producers. Here exists the risk of supporting only lower-cost
technologies.
The most popular instrument for supporting
renewable energy is the feed in tariff. There are guaranteed
prices for electricity from renewable sources. A specific
country makes decision about prices from different sources
depending of technology costs and size of plants. Suppliers
buy electricity with guaranteed prices from producers
(Germany) or producers sell it on the market and later get the
premium for selling the electricity (Spain). The feed in tariff is
approved as the most effective system for promoting RES.
This system is very cheap for implementation, but it can slow
down technology prospects. But for now situation in West
Europe disproves it.

IV. BIOGAS POTENTIAL IN SERBIA
Serbia is country of agriculture and has big potential for
biogas power plants. In this moment it is still only potential
because system of supporting this technology is not
developed. Subsidies do not exist, however there are some
ideas how to make start-up biogas power plant projects in
Serbia. The main idea is to establish small scale biogas power
plants on the big farms or in food factories where a lot of
waste materials exist and also the high demand for energy
(heat and electricity) is present.
For example if we have one big chicken farm with 60 000
chicken then with the average production of manure from one
chicken of 27 kg/year we will have the total manure
production on this typical farm of 1620 t for one year.
Depending of manure quality we can extract around 80 m
3
of
biogas from 1t fresh manure. In our example that means that
yearly biogas production will be around 130000 m
3
. Biogas
in amount of 1m
3
has energy equivalent of 1,7kWh in electric
energy and 2kWh in thermal energy. Therefore, the farm from
our example could produce 221000 kWh of electricity and
260000 kWh of thermal energy during one year. Half of
produced thermal energy has to be spent for heating of
digestion process and around 10 % of electricity for the
process inside power plant. If we would take gas machine
which would work continuously with full capacity the install
power of generator would be 35 kW. With this power we can
not reach so high efficiency because electricity price during
low tariff is cheap and more economical is to install generator
with 50 kW of power and during low tariff produce as much
energy as we need on the farm in this moment. Rest of
produced biogas we can put in the gas storage and use it later
in high tariff and also to produce enough power for covering
pick demand during day. With this we would have bigger
install power and we could control the power production.
Unused electricity we can sell to the network and also earn
some money. Summarize with this system we would save
about 8500 Euro for electricity which we use in this farm, we
would earn 3200 Euro from electricity which we can sell to
the network, and we would save about 6000 Euro for heating
purposes. The total effect is about 17 700 Euros. Investments
for this plant are around 120 000 Euros. In this scenario the
payback period would be between 8 and 10 years. This time
we can decrease if we would receive some grant from outside
(EU, EBRD) for promotion biogas systems in this region.
Also, similar solutions can be implemented on the pig and
cattle farms. Here we can combine substrates which we feed
into the digestor. If we have farm as an integral part of food
factory, the waste from food producing can be treated also in
biogas plant. In this case we have to care about C:N ratio and
ratio in digestor between waste from food factory and manure.
The advantage of this system (biogas power plant on the farm)
in comparison to the plant where the production of electricity
for the external network is the only goal, is the own input
substrate, which is free, and because of that the lower
electricity price. When farmers bay electricity, they pay it
with higher prices, then the price for the electricity which
power plant owners can sell it to the grid (for example, if you
would selling electricity directly to the grid you can not reach
price higher then 0,04 Euro/kWh, but when farmers buy it
they have pay price of 0,051 Euro/kWh). This is reason why
farmers have interest to build power plant for covering their
own needs for electricity (and heat). It is also important to
emphasize that these farmers and factories owners solve the
ecological problem which they face with manure and waste.

4.1. Biogas power plant connection to the public
grid (the Serbian law)
Biogas plants can work in regime of parallel work (sending
electricity only to the grid, without possibility for isolated
operation), in combine regime (parallel or island regime) and
in an island regime, when power plant only produce electricity
for self consumption and for power supply to the consumers
which are connected to the plant. If we want to connect the
biogas power plant to the grid, the next criterions have to be
fulfilled:
Criterion of allowed power
Criterion of allowed higher harmonics current
Short circuit criterion
The first criterion guaranties that in transient process the
voltage rise in the connection point will not be bigger then
2%. The criterion is fulfilled if
500
ks
ng
S
S

, where
ng
S

represents the total install power of all generators in

the power plant, and S
ks
is the three phase short circuit power
in the connection point to the grid. In that case power plant
can be connected to the grid without any bad influences. The
second criterion is fulfilled if
vhdoz vhs ks
I I S = . Here I
vhdoz

represents the allowed higher harmonics current on the
generators voltage level [A], and I
vhs
is the higher harmonics
current reduced to the short circuit power in the connected
point to the grid [A / MVA]. This value is specified in this
recommendation. The last criterion should be checked only if
the install power is bigger then 1MVA, what is often case in
biogas power plants. Since in the biogas power plant
synchronous generators are used, they can be synchronized to
the network, if:

Voltage difference: U < 10% U
n


Frequency difference:
f < 0,5 Hz
Phase angle difference: < 10%

In Austria one interesting project for controlling power of
biogas plants, which deliver electrical energy into the grid, has
been started. This concerns the active power control and
reactive power control. Up to now neither the first, nor the
second possibility is used. The first possibility was not usable
for producers because they try to produce as much active
power as they can and work under maximum load condition
as long as possible, due to economic reasons. Barriers against
making use of second option are missing control equipment,
unclear advantage of reactive power control for the operator,
and low or even detrimental effect to the grid stability, if
singular biogas plants are feeding reactive power into the grid
without any common control strategy. Now idea is to connect
a certain number of biogas plants together to a big centrally
controlled Virtual Biogas Power Plant. Benefits from this
control system are for producers and for grid operators also.
Expected benefits for the biogas plant operator are possible
improvement of the economical situation of his plant by
operation of his generators with a better power factor, so they
could feed more active power into the grid and therefore
increase the profit of the plant. Also reactive power market
could be established as it is realized in United Kingdom.
Expected benefits for the grid operators might be reduction of
transmission losses and the optimized operation of large
power plants used for reactive power control so far.

V. CONCLUSION

Biogas technologies are very popular in Europe and these
trends are attractive for West Balkan countries. Their
applications solve one additional big problem, the ecological
one. The question is why we would throw away our organic
waste when we can produce energy from this. If we use the
animal manure just as fertilizer, we still have the problem of
odours. If we put it into the digestor, we again have fertilizer,
but now without any odours. Also, this can improve the
overall farm economy. Cultivating energy crops (grass and
other quick growing plants) and by applying the anaerobic
digestion of these crops results in biogas production. The
utilization of the biogas in order to produce electric power and
heat offers a new source of income to the farmer. The farmers
can start to produce energy and earning also by selling energy.
Start-up projects in biogas technology should be supported
and promoted. With some subsidies to the investors during
installation, payback period would be shorter and building of
biogas power plants more economical.
The other possibility is to apply for the grants in EU
available for the renewable energy sources promotion. The
need for wider applications of renewable energy sources
comes from the fact that we are simultaneously solving the
problem of energy demand and the ecological problem also.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

This work was supported by European Commission,
Directorate General on Research and Technology
Development and International Co-operation Activities
(INCO) under contract no FP6-509161 (RISE Project )


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st

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