The world economic development of the 20th century led to the massive use of fossils, such as oil, natural gas and coal as fuels and chemical raw materials, which has led to huge emissions of carbon dioxide as the final product of combustion and main responsible for the global warming facing the Earth.
Today, biomass-based renewable energy sources have gained great importance with the firm intention of replacing oil consumption and reducing greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere. This is where biofuels come in . One of these biofuels is the biogas released in the anaerobic digestion of different natural organic wastes.
What exactly is biogas?
It occurs after bacteria break down organic materials (plant and animal products) in an oxygen-free environment, a process called anaerobic digestion. Biogas systems use anaerobic digestion to recycle these organic materials, turning them into biogas, which contains energy (gas) and valuable soil products (liquid and solid).
While it is true that anaerobic digestion already takes place in nature, in landfills and in some livestock manure management systems, it can be optimized, controlled and contained using an anaerobic digester. Biogas contains approximately 50-70% methane, 30-40% carbon dioxide and traces of other gases.
The basic bioenergy process involves the conversion of organic material into a final product, including biogas, which can then be used to produce energy. The main raw materials used are food waste, agricultural fertilizers and manure, and crop residues.
This is how Metanogenia works
“What I find most exciting or what I think we contribute the most to society is that, on the one hand, we increase the competitiveness of the industry because we transform something that has no value into a raw material with great importance in the market such as it can be energy, and we also contribute to closing the cycle because we favor the green and circular economy. We transform it into a source of energy and when we return to the agricultural land, the productive cycle is closed ”, explains Almudena González González, an expert in the treatment of agro-industrial by-products through biomethanization and one of the founders of the Metanogenia spin-off, whose group of Researchers have been conducting technical, energy and economic feasibility studies for biogas facilities since 2000.
According to its predictive mathematical model on biogas productions per ton of waste, it is much easier to limit the operating conditions of a biogas plant or future anaerobic digestion tests.
Anaerobic digestion is a biological process that leads to the degradation of organic matter by the concerted action of a wide variety of microorganisms (mainly bacteria) in the absence of oxygen or other strong oxidizing agents. After undergoing a series of treatments, it can be used as an agricultural amendment, since it has a greater fertilizing power than the treated residues.
It has the same uses as natural gas
Once the biogas is captured, it can produce heat and electricity for use in engines, microturbines and fuel cells. Biogas can also be converted into biomethane or renewable natural gas or RNG, and injected into natural gas pipelines or even used as fuel for vehicles.
