Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:
https://doi.org/10.21256/zhaw-21517
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 |
Files in This Item:
File | Description | Size | Format | |
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2021_Zhou-etal_Operating-performance-agricultural-biogas-plants.pdf | 1.35 MB | Adobe PDF | ![]() View/Open |
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