The 6th International Conference on Biomass Energy (ICBE2018)

578 / 2018-11-06 06:01:21

Synthesis and Assessment of a Biogas-Centred Agricultural Eco-Industrial Park in British Columbia

Plenary track > B. Biomass Polygeneration

An agricultural Eco-Industrial Park (EIP) was proposed which consists of dairy farm, greenhouse, and mushroom farm. Dairy manure is anaerobically digested to produce biogas and digestate. Biogas replaces natural gas to supply heat to the farms and CO2 to the greenhouse. Digestate is separated into a liquid fertilizer and a solid substrate; the former replaces chemical fertilizers and the latter can be utilized as cow bedding and plants/mushroom growing medium. Mushroom growing emits CO2 which typically has to be ventilated; in this EIP it is also used in greenhouse.
A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) was conducted to analyze the environmental benefits of the EIP compared to conventional independent farms. 50%~97% of the non-renewable energy consumption, climate change, aquatic acidification, respiratory effects from organic emissions, and human toxicity can be reduced. And over 20% of the aquatic eutrophication and respiratory effects from inorganic emissions can be reduced.