Bioenergy
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Anaerobic digestion (AD) technology produces bioenergy from organic wastes that would have historically gone to landfill or been spread on land. AD uses natural processes within engineered containers where microorganisms convert waste material from plants or animals into useful products in the absence of air. The biogas produced is typically a mixture of 60% methane and 40% carbon dioxide by volume. Biogas can provide heat, electrical power or a biomethane as a transport fuel. AD first attracted investors because of its potential to offer long-term municipal green waste contracts combined with the possibility of supplying energy to the grid. The financing of investment in AD has focused on features such as set-up costs, availability of technical expertise, project management, the feedstock flows to and from waste catchment, the time taken to ramp up to full-scale operation and hence security over revenues, and the engineering performance of the technology in its various forms. The combination of bio, solar, wind and geothermal could make large livestock farms energy sufficient in coming years. |