The Environmental Assessment of Biomass Waste Conversion to Sustainable Energy in the Agricultural Biogas Plant

Operating an agricultural biogas plants offers the potential of stable, clean, renewable and diversified energy source. It is also a good opportunity to reduce the amount of organic waste. The objective of this study is to evaluate the main environmental hot spots of operating agricultural biogas plants using LCA methodology. This article presents the environmental impact assessment of two agricultural biogas plants with different type of feedstock provision. The environmental life cycle assessment was carried out from “cradle to gate” using the SimaPro software and the ILCD 2011 Midpoint+ methodology. The boundaries of the system included cultivation of maize, delivery of feedstock to the plant, energy production, storage and transport of digestate. The results show that transport of liquid manure induces the highest environmental impact.