Biowaste as a feedstock for biogas production – a case study

ABSTRACT

The use of biowaste and its diversion from landfill aims to reduce the negative impact on the environment and contribute to increasing material recycling and renewable energy production. It has been proven that biogas technology is capable of converting large amounts of biowaste into renewable energy in an economical and sustainable way, replacing unsustainable fossil energy sources, and reducing dependence on fossil fuels. This paper presents the possibility of biogas production in Croatia from separated biowaste as input material. The paper analyzed current bio waste volumes in Croatia and their potential for renewable energy, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of such waste treatment for renewable energy production. The results of the analysis provide data and information for policymakers, planners, and operators in order to sufficiently address management of the separately collected organic fraction of municipal solid waste. They also clearly present environmental benefits associated with the use of digestate derived from this waste fraction.

KEYWORDS:

• Renewable energy
• biowaste
• separate collection
• biogas
• Croatia

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Bojan Ribić

Bojan Ribić, Ph.D. is the Head of the Department of waste collection at Zagreb City Holding, Waste Management Division. His main expertise is in the field of waste management, especially separate collection and utilization of different waste fractions. During his career he has been involved in several EU projects funded by different programmes: from FP7 (Civitas Elan) and Intelligent Energy Europe (UrbanBiogas, CleanFleets)to H2020 (PPI4Waste) and Interreg (REEF2W). He was also coordinator of the H2020 project Bin2Grid. Furthermore, since 2015 he is an official evaluator of EC for H2020 projects in the field of environmental protection.

Neven Voća

Dr Neven Voća is a full professor at the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Zagreb. He has more than 20 years of experience in teaching, consultancy and research in the broad field of biomass and biofuel production, energy production and waste management in agriculture. He has been involved in many national and international R&D projects as leader or partner. He has been a member of the organising committee for several international conferences and symposia.