POTENTIAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT OF A BIOGAS STATION OPERATED IN CZECH REPUBLIC (LIFE-CYCLE ASSESSMENT METHOD)

References: 14th International Multidisciplinary Scientific GeoConference SGEM 2014, www.sgem.org, SGEM2014 Conference Proceedings, ISBN 978-619-7105-15-5 / ISSN 1314-2704, June 19-25, 2014, Book 4, Vol. 1, 401-408 pp

ABSTRACT
Biogas production by anaerobic digestion is one way how to use energy from organic substrates, obtain a natural fertiliser for agriculture and, at the same time, reduce waste flows from manufacturing processes. In assessing impacts in the case of biogas stations the main problems are usually seen in shipping the raw materials to the biogas stations and a subsequent transport of produced digastate from the biogas station to the fields. Therefore, the initial project focused on the specific case of a biogas station which has been part of a well run-in farm. As a feed the farm uses most of their own agricultural wastes and also they use the digestate as a fertiliser on their own fields. In this project the LCA method helps to define the key processes or used materials, which may have potentially negative environmental impacts. Based on LCA methodology, significant negative effects were identified as for one type of fermenter feedstock in the biogas station, i.e. grass harvested from the public area and incorporated into the silage. At the same time, there is a cardinal defect in the Czech legislation, this means neither new nor the existing biogas stations are forced to utilise their waste heat. Therefore, this leads to an increase in the potential negative impacts of the generated power.

Keywords: biogas, LCA, digestate, Czech Republic, potential impact