26 April 2016 http://www.wiwo.de/technologie/green/tech/biogas-aus-mist-neue-technik-macht-energiepflanzen-ueberfluessig/13554436.html Company Ductor from Finland claims to generate biogas from animal manure, as chicken - avoiding misuse of agricultural farmland.
March 2016 – backstage information mostly. As it seems Biogas plants which burn waste (as a special form of WTE Waste to Energy) to produce gas for both the current recovery as well as for heating and hot water are far less efficient as assumed – the efficiency seems to be only 30 % (owed to a backstage information given to me in March 2016 from a former leader in this field). The system which runs the plants is cogeneration, which is not further funded in Germany. The engine used needs itself energy to burn the waste. “Bio gas can be produced from raw materials as agricultural waste, manure, municipal waste, plant material, sewage, green waste of food waste. It is a renewable energy source and in many cases exerts a very small carbon footprint.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biogas In short: By fermentation of biodegradable materials the gas methane, hydrogen and carbon monoxide can be oxidized with oxygen. “This energy release allows biogas to be used as a fuel;” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biogas.
The lack of efficiency applies for large municipal biogas plants and also for smaller ones. The rest of the waste, i.e. those not biodegradable materials - around 70 % - have to be burnt again! More over in the case of smaller farm biogas plants precious farmland is misused . The main problem for nature and environment is here, that this it not essentially bio-waste but plants as mais and raps are cultivated and gassed! This means that precious agricultural land is lost for the production of food. As a result, food prices are rising – even in the third world, because there precious agricultural land is used for crops to be gased in Europe – as far as I understand. The cultivation of these monocultures increases the use of fertilizers and pesticides. These pollute the environment, namely groundwater, surface water and soils – and are directly responsible for the destruction of species. This is a classical example of misguided subsidies!
Renewable Energy Sources/Biogas plants most expensive?!
23 Nov 2015 http://www.sueddeutsche.de/bayern/subventionen-laufen-aus-die-angst-der-biogas-bauern-1.2748751: The article mentions (besides the big picture), that biogas is the most expensive renewable energy source, one kW hour costs about 15 to 22 cent. In Germany seemingly without subventions. Rather high risk because of errors made by the human operators or by technical reasons, and manure was released into ground water and polluted a river, fish died. Restoring of this river seems to need years. Seems to be a renewable energy source which does not need storing (???). Munich Stadtwerke (driving the electrical grid in Munich) therefore in the past supported many biogas plants to feed energy into the grid, whenever a break down of grid made it necessary.
However it seems that German KfW bank is supporting with a certain amount of money, for storage systems related to biogas plants. This is bit confusing to me, if these systems are said that they do not need storage? Etc.
