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Publication type:	Article in scientific journal
Type of review:	Peer review (publication)
Title:	Operating performance of full-scale agricultural biogas plants in Germany and China : results of a year-round monitoring program
Authors:	Zhou, Lijun Hülsemann, Benedikt Cui, Zhiyang Merkle, Wolfgang Sponagel, Christian Zhou, Yuguang Guo, Jianbin Dong, Renjie Müller, Joachim Oechsner, Hans
et. al:	No
DOI:	10.3390/app11031271 10.21256/zhaw-21517
Published in:	Applied Sciences
Volume(Issue):	11
Issue:	3
Page(s):	1271
Issue Date:	2021
Publisher / Ed. Institution:	MDPI
ISSN:	2076-3417
Language:	English
Subjects:	Anaerobic digestion; Biogas; Performance monitoring; Financial analysis; Policy
Subject (DDC):	660: Chemical engineering
Abstract:	Germany (DE) and China (CN) have different political approaches in supporting the biogas sector. Three German and three Chinese large-scale biogas plants (BGPs) were evaluated as part of a year-round monitoring program. Laboratory methods were utilized to analyze the chemical indicators. Results showed a stable anaerobic digestion process without system failures in all BGPs. The methane yield had a range of 0.23–0.35 m3 CH4/kgODM for DE BGPs and 0.11–0.22 m3 CH4/kgODM for CN BGPs, due to different substrates and working temperatures. Financial analyses indicated that DE BGPs are viable under their current feed-in tariffs contracts. Their financial internal rate of return (IRR) ranged between 8 and 22%. However, all CN BGPs had negative IRRs, indicating that they are financially unfeasible. Risk analyses illustrated that DE BGPs will face financial nonviability if benefits decrease by 9–33% or costs increase by 10–49%, or if a combined worse case (benefit decrease and cost increase) of 5 20% occurs. Incentives to BGP operations are particularly important in China, where the government should consider switching the construction-based subsidy to a performancebased subsidy system to motivate the operators. BGP monitoring is necessary to understand the performance, in addition to briefing policymakers in case a policy reform is needed
URI:	https://digitalcollection.zhaw.ch/handle/11475/21517
Fulltext version:	Published version
License (according to publishing contract):	CC BY 4.0: Attribution 4.0 International
Departement:	Life Sciences and Facility Management
Organisational Unit:	Institute of Chemistry and Biotechnology (ICBT)
Appears in collections:	Publikationen Life Sciences und Facility Management

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