Available online at www.sciencedirect.

com
Available online at www.sciencedirect.com
ScienceDirect
ScienceDirect
Energy
Available
Available Procedia
online
online 00 (2018) 000–000
atatwww.sciencedirect.com
www.sciencedirect.com
Energy Procedia 00 (2018) 000–000 www.elsevier.com/locate/procedia
ScienceDirect
ScienceDirect
www.elsevier.com/locate/procedia

Energy
EnergyProcedia
Procedia148 (2018) 000–000
00 (2017) 655–662
www.elsevier.com/locate/procedia
73rd Conference of the Italian Thermal Machines Engineering Association (ATI 2018),
73rd Conference of the Italian
12–14Thermal Machines
September 2018, Engineering
Pisa, Italy Association (ATI 2018),
12–14 September 2018, Pisa, Italy
Biogas upgrading and liquefaction in an anaerobic digester plant
Biogas upgrading and aliquefaction
The 15th International Symposium in an anaerobic
a,b* on District Heating
b anddigester
Cooling
a
plant
A. Bacciolia, L. Ferraria,b*, A. Marchionnib, U. Desideria
A. Baccioli , L. Ferrari , A. Marchionni , U. Desideri
a

a
Assessing the feasibility of using the heat demand-outdoor
Department of Energy, Systems, Territory and Constructions Engineering, University of Pisa, Largo Lucio Lazzarino, Pisa 56122, Italy
b
National
Department Council
of Energy, of Research
Systems, of and
Territory ItalyConstructions
CNR-ICCOMEngineering,
– Via Madonna del Piano
University 10, 50019
of Pisa, LargoSesto
LucioFiorentino (FI),
Lazzarino, PisaItaly
56122, Italy
temperature function for a long-term district heat demand forecast
b
National Council of Research of Italy CNR-ICCOM – Via Madonna del Piano 10, 50019 Sesto Fiorentino (FI), Italy

Abstract a,b,c
Abstract I. Andrić *, A. Pinaa, P. Ferrãoa, J. Fournierb., B. Lacarrièrec, O. Le Correc
Thanks
a
to the high energy density and to the extended range it can ensure, LNG is an attractive energy vector especially in
IN+ Center
heavy-duty
Thanks theforhigh
Innovation,
totransportation. This
energy Technology
fuel isand
density and
eventoPolicy Research
moreextended
the interesting- Instituto
rangeif it Superior
produced
can Técnico,
starting
ensure, LNGfrom Av. Rovisco
is anbiogas Pais 1,energy
because
attractive 1049-001theLisbon,
of vectorreducedPortugal
carbon
especially in
b
footprint. Biogas
heavy-duty production
transportation. Veolia
Thisoccurs
fuel Recherche
in
is even &
anaerobic Innovation,
more digestion 291
interesting Avenue
plants
if andDreyfous
various
produced Daniel,
starting 78520biogas
production
from Limay, France
strategies can
because beof pursued
the to
reduced transform
carbon
c
Département Systèmes
studyÉnergétiques et Environnement - IMT Atlantique, 4 rue Alfredtreatment
Kastler, 44300
biogas
footprint. intoBiogas
bio-LNG. In this
production occurs theanaerobic
in anaerobic digester plants
digestion of the municipal
and variouswastewater
production strategies can Nantes,
plant France has been
beofpursued
Viareggioto transform
analyzed. The plant is equipped with a Capstone C600s co-generative micro
biogas into bio-LNG. In this study the anaerobic digester of the municipal wastewater treatment plant of Viareggiogas turbine and with a boiler for the sludgehasheating.
been
Three
analyzed. different
The plantbio-LNG production
is equipped with strategies
a Capstonehave C600sbeen considered. micro
co-generative In the gasfirstturbine
strategy and(the baseline
with a boilercase),
for thethesludge
biogasheating.
fueled
boiler
Three provides
different the heat necessary
bio-LNG production for strategies
the sludgehave heating.
beenThe electric energy
considered. In therequired for wastewater
first strategy (the baseline treatment
case), and
the for upgrading
biogas fueled
Abstract
and
boilerliquefaction
provides the processes is bought
heat necessary for from the electric
the sludge heating. grid.
TheInelectric
the second
energystrategy,
requiredthe formicro gas turbine
wastewater is operated
treatment and for in thermal
upgrading
following mode and
and liquefaction the electric
processes energyfrom
is bought required by the plant
the electric grid. processes
In the secondis partly self-produced
strategy, the microand gaspartly
turbineacquired from the
is operated grid. In
in thermal
District
the
following heating
third strategy,
mode and networks
the are energy
micro-turbine
the electric commonly
is operated addressed
required in following
inbyelectric
the planttheprocesses
literature isaspartly
mode, one self-produced
of thetomost
attempting covereffective
all the
and solutions
electric
partly loadfor
acquired decreasing
necessary
from the
to the
the grid. In
greenhouse
process
the thirdand gasof
part
strategy, emissions
the from theis building
themicro-turbine
heat necessary operated sector.
to the sludge These
heating.
in electric systems
The plant
following require
mode, high investments
wasattempting
analyzed in which
tosteady-state
cover all are returned
theconditions
electric through the
by necessary
load considering heat
to the
sales.
heat
process Duepart
requested
and tobythe
of changed
thetheanaerobic climate
digesters,
heat necessary conditions
to the sludge
the and
efficiency building
curves
heating. Theofrenovation
the micro
plant was gas policies,
turbine
analyzed inheat
and demand
the inand
thethefuture
boiler,conditions
steady-state heat could decrease,
by exchangers
considering off-
the
prolonging
design
heat requested the
behavior. byinvestment
Results
the anaerobic return
showed period.
that,
digesters, according to the economic
the efficiency curves of reference
the micro scenario,
gas turbine theandsolution with and
the boiler, the high profitability
the heat exchangers canoff-
be
Thewith
that
design mainthescope
boiler
behavior. ofofthis
Results paper
with is
thatshowed thetomicro
that,assess theturbine
gas
according feasibility of using
to theoperated
economic the heatfollowing
in thermal
reference demand
scenario,–mode.
outdoor
the temperature
solution with the highfunction for heat demand
profitability can be
that with theThe
forecast. boiler of that
district of with the micro
Alvalade, gas turbine
located in Lisbonoperated in thermal
(Portugal), wasfollowing
used as amode. case study. The district is consisted of 665
©buildings
2018 Thethat Authors.
vary Published by Elsevierperiod
in both construction Ltd. and typology. Three weather scenarios (low, medium, high) and three district
©© 2018
This2018
is anThe
TheopenAuthors.
Authors. Published
accessPublished
article by Elsevier
by
under Elsevier
the CC Ltd.
Ltd.
BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
renovation scenarios were developed (shallow, intermediate, deep). To estimate the error, obtained heat demand values were
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
This is an and
Selection open access
peer-review article
underunder the CC
responsibility BY-NC-ND license
of the scientific (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
committee of the 73rd Conference of the Italian Thermal Machines
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committeedeveloped
compared with results from a dynamic heat demand model, previously of the 73rdand validated of
Conference by theItalian
the authors.
Thermal Machines
Selection
Engineering
The results
Engineering andAssociation
peer-review
showed
Association under
that(ATI
when
(ATI responsibility
2018).
only
2018). weather changeof the scientific committee
is considered, of the 73rd
the margin Conference
of error could beof the Italianfor
acceptable Thermal Machines
some applications
Engineering
(the error in Association
annual demand (ATI 2018).
was lower than 20% for all weather scenarios considered). However, after introducing renovation
Keywords:
scenarios, the error
Biogas, valueLiquefaction,
bio-LNG, increased up to 59.5%
Micro (depending
Gas Turbine, Operation on Mode
the weather and renovation scenarios combination considered).
Keywords:
The value Biogas, bio-LNG,
of slope Liquefaction,
coefficient increasedMicroon Gasaverage
Turbine,within
Operation theMode
range of 3.8% up to 8% per decade, that corresponds to the
decrease in the number of heating hours of 22-139h during the heating season (depending on the combination of weather and
renovation scenarios considered). On the other hand, function intercept increased for 7.8-12.7% per decade (depending on the
coupled scenarios). The values suggested could be used to modify the function parameters for the scenarios considered, and
improve the accuracy of heat demand estimations.

© 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +39 050 221 7132; fax: +39 050 221 7333.
Peer-review under responsibility of the Scientific Committee of The 15th International Symposium on District Heating and
E-mail
* address: author.
Corresponding lorenzo.ferrari@unipi.it
Tel.: +39 050 221 7132; fax: +39 050 221 7333.
Cooling.
E-mail address: lorenzo.ferrari@unipi.it
1876-6102 © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Keywords: Heat demand; Forecast; Climate change
This is an open
1876-6102 access
© 2018 Thearticle under
Authors. the CC BY-NC-ND
Published license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
by Elsevier Ltd.
Selection
This is an and
openpeer-review under
access article responsibility
under of the scientific
the CC BY-NC-ND licensecommittee of the 73rd Conference of the Italian Thermal Machines Engineering
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
Association
Selection and(ATI 2018). under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 73rd Conference of the Italian Thermal Machines Engineering
peer-review
Association (ATI 2018).
1876-6102 © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
1876-6102 © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Peer-review under responsibility of the Scientific Committee of The 15th International Symposium on District Heating and Cooling.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 73rd Conference of the Italian Thermal Machines
Engineering Association (ATI 2018).
10.1016/j.egypro.2018.08.154
656 A. Baccioli et al. / Energy Procedia 148 (2018) 655–662
2 Author name / Energy Procedia 00 (2018) 000–000

1. Introduction

Biogas is an attractive fuel since it has a zero-carbon footprint and can be produced from waste organic materials
such as manure, organic waste from agricultural activities, sewage from water treatment plant and municipal bio-
waste. Sewage treatment may represent a significant contribution to the increase of biogas production [1] especially if
co-digested with municipal bio-waste to increase methane concentration of the resulting biogas [2-5]. Food waste is
an optimum substrate to improve the digester yields of methane, due to its high biodegradability. The produced biogas
is often used as fuel for a co-generator to produce electricity and heat for the digester. Internal combustion engines
(ICE) or micro gas turbines (mGT) are usually employed [6]. Un interesting development could be the conversion of
biogas in liquefied natural gas (LNG). Recently, the interest towards LNG as a fuel for heavy-duty terrestrial and
marine transport has increased thanks to its lower carbon content and pollutants emission in comparison to diesel oil.
The high energy density of LNG in comparison to compressed natural gas guarantees ranges similar to those achieved
with diesel oil. As a result, several vehicle manufacturers began to produce LNG-fueled trucks and an increasing
number projects has been financed by public funding to promote LNG use.
To produce bio-LNG, the biogas from anaerobic digestion should be firstly depurated and upgraded to remove
corrosive compounds (H2S, Siloxanes) and to increase the content of methane. Various upgrading techniques are
currently available on the market which can provide a high-quality bio-methane, with a content of CH4 which varies
from 95 to 97% [7]. The liquefaction process for small-scale system is a technology which is recently available on the
market but is characterized by an elevated specific energy consumption [8-10]. The production of bio-LNG highly
increases the electric demand of the plant and opens the way to new opportunities in system management.
In this study, the anaerobic digester of the town of Viareggio has been considered as a case study. The digester
serves the wastewater treatment plant and has been recently updated to perform a co-digestion of organic municipal
food. In the near future, the plant will be equipped with a Capstone C600s micro Gas-Turbine (mGT). The opportunity
of installing a micro-scale liquefaction unit for bio-LNG production has been analyzed. Three different scenarios were
considered to produce the electricity and the heat necessary for plant operation and sludge heating:
1) Biogas boiler provides the heat necessary to the process and electric energy is entirely bought from the national
grid;
2) mGT operated according to an electric follow mode and waste heat used to cover part of the sludge heating
needs
3) mGT operated according to a thermal follow mode and only part of the electricity need is covered by the
cogeneration unit.
The system has been analyzed from both a thermodynamic and an economic point of view. The plant performance
was evaluated in four different climatic conditions of the year by considering components off-deign behavior. The
configurations were compared in terms of profitability and potential reduction of CO2 emission for one year

Nomenclature

𝑄𝑄̇ thermal power [kW] 𝑈𝑈 Overall heat transfer coefficient [kW/m2/K]

𝑚𝑚̇𝑠𝑠 sludge mass flow rate [kg/s] 𝐴𝐴𝑑𝑑 Digesters surface [m2]
𝐶𝐶𝑝𝑝 specific heat [kJ/kg/K] 𝑇𝑇𝑎𝑎 Ambient Temperature [°C]
𝑇𝑇𝑑𝑑 Digesters temperature [°C] 𝐶𝐶 Cost [$]
𝑇𝑇𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖 Sludge inlet temperature [°C] 𝐴𝐴 Capacity factor

2. Case Study description

A plant scheme with the mGTis reported in Figure 1. The plant is made up of two cylindrical anaerobic digesters
with an operating volume of about 3300 m3 and 1300 m3 respectively. Before entering in the plant, the sewage is
mixed with municipal bio-waste in the ratio of 4:1 and a final methane content in the biogas up to 65% is achieved.
The mixture of bio-waste and sludge is diluted in water with a solid concentration of 7%. The total mass flow rate of
the mixture entering in the plant is 10.8 t/h. The biogas capacity is about 276.6 kg/h [11, 12]. The digestate is currently
 A. Baccioli et al. / Energy Procedia 148 (2018) 655–662 657
Author name / Energy Procedia 00 (2018) 000–000 3

discharged and stored in a tank, but the opportunity of sludge regeneration was considered in this study. This solution
can reduce the heat requested to increase the sludge temperature and keep the digester at 37°C [11-13].

Fig. 1. Scheme of the system with mGT.

3. Methodology

The system has been modeled through equations in steady-state conditions, by considering, for each component
the mass and energy conservation. The design ambient temperature of the system was 0°C and the design sludge
temperature was 9.8°C, which are the lowest value recorded during winter condition. The system was simulated in
off-design in four different days, representative of the average conditions of the various seasons in Viareggio. The
average ambient and sludge temperatures, the system electric energy request (without considering upgrading and
liquefaction) and the thermal power request (without considering the regenerator) are reported for each season in Table
1. Annual data are evaluated by multiplying the results of the average seasonal conditions for the number of the days
of the season and summing the obtained values of each season.

Table 1. Average ambient and sludge temperature in Viareggio and seasonal energy requests.
Season Air temperature Sludge Electric Energy Heat request
[°C] temperature [°C] request [kWh/day] [kWh/day]
Winter 7.3 10.3 4094 9069
Spring 13.2 14.6 4094 7578
Summer 22.9 24.8 4094 4393
Autumn 16.3 19.8 4094 5936

For each configuration, the avoided CO2 emissions and the profitability index (PI) were evaluated: the first index
was calculated by considering the difference between the avoided emission due to the replacement of diesel oil with
bio-LNG in heavy-duty vehicle and the CO2 emissions due to the production of the electric energy acquired from the
grid. The emission of carbon dioxide in kg produced by the electric system was calculated by multiplying the required
energy in kWh by the factor 0.325 [kg/kWh], as from [14], typical of Italian generation plants. The avoided emissions
were evaluated by considering the equivalent emissions of the amount of diesel oil necessary to obtain the same
heating value of bio-LNG. In other terms, bio-LNG heat content in kWh was multiplied for 0.27 [kg/kWh], according
to the values reported in [15]. For the economic analysis, the profitability index was evaluated as the ratio between
the actualized cash flows and the capital investment of the system.
658 A. Baccioli et al. / Energy Procedia 148 (2018) 655–662
4 Author name / Energy Procedia 00 (2018) 000–000

3.1. Digesters

The heat load necessary to keep the digesters at the temperature of 37°C was evaluated considering the convective
losses through the wall and the energy necessary to warm up the sludge entering in the plant (or after the regenerator
if this component is present):

Q = ms  C p  (Td − Tin ) + U  Ad (Td − Ta ) (1)

The first term represents the heat necessary to warm up the sludge and the second term is the convective heat losses
to the ambient. The first term of this equation has the highest impact on the thermal energy need, especially when the
sludge regeneration is not adopted, due to the high sludge mass flowrate and to the low temperature of the sludge
(especially during winter).

3.2. Boiler

The boiler was designed to provide the heat necessary to the two digesters. The off-design behavior was simulated
by considering a typical efficiency curve from the literature. The costs of the device were evaluated from
manufacturers catalogues [16].

3.3. mGT

The mGT is a Capstone C600s micro-turbine, composed by three 200 kW modules. The turbine efficiency curve
as a function of the load and the ambient temperature is reported in Figure 2, as well as the variation of the exhaust
gas mass flow rate and temperature. The cost of the whole turbine was provided by the plant manager and was equal
to 1.1 million of Euro. The total cost was divided by three to obtain the order of magnitude of the cost of the single
200 kW module.

Fig. 2. Capstone C600s m-GT Efficiency curve (left) and efficiency and power variation with the temperature (right).

3.4. Heat Exchanger and sludge regenerator

All the heat exchangers of the systems, including the sludge regenerator were designed and modeled in off-design
conditions through a ε-NTU approach. The average heat exchanger coefficients were taken from [17] and were
considered as constants also in off-design conditions. In the case of mGT, an iterative procedure was used to solve the
water loop, satisfying the ε-NTU equations on both the heat exchangers (flu-gas/water and water/sludge) of the loop.
The cost of the heat exchangers was evaluated using the procedure reported in [18].
 A. Baccioli et al. / Energy Procedia 148 (2018) 655–662 659
Author name / Energy Procedia 00 (2018) 000–000 5

3.5. Upgrading and Liquefaction Systems

Before the liquefaction process, biogas needs a depuration to remove pollutants and acid substances (H 2S and
siloxanes) and an upgrading process to reduce the CO2 content and obtaining high purity biogas (methane content
higher than 95%). Various upgrading and depuration techniques are nowadays commercially viable. Among the
upgrading techniques, pressure swing adsorption is one of the most used process. This process requires only electrical
energy to drive the compressor that increases the biogas pressure for the adsorption of the CO2. Regarding the
liquefaction plant, several types of refrigeration cycles can be implemented, but the reverse Joule-Brayton cycle seems
to be the most promising technology for small-scale systems [19]. Commercial units are currently available for this
plant typology [20]. The specific consumption of the upgrading and liquefaction system was set equal to 0.7 kWh/Stm3
[19] and was retained constant also during the off-design characterization since the mass flow rate of biogas does not
have large variation during operation respect to the design point. The cost of the system was extrapolated from a
previous published work [18], and then scaled down through a power law in the form:

0.6
 A 
C Cref  
=  (2)
A
 ref 

Where Cref is the reference cost of the plant with the capacity Aref from [18], and A is the actual capacity of the
liquefaction system. The cost of the upgrading system was supposed to be of the same order of magnitude of the
liquefaction system.

3.6. Wastewater treatment plant and sludge pre/post processing plant

The wastewater treatment plant and the pre/post processing plant of the sludge are characterized by an electric
consumption which can be considered constant in all the investigated ambient conditions and equal to 4.09 MWh/day.

4. Results

The heat requested for the sludge heating and for keeping the internal temperature of the digesters decreased with
the regenerator surface (Figure. 3). The amount of heat necessary to heat the sludge had a deep impact on all the
considered strategies both on the system design and on the management, since it represents a constraint of the system.
The heat was supposed to be produced from biogas, without any external contribution from fossil fuels. The maximum
amount of bio-LNG was produced in the baseline case, i.e. with the boiler (Figure 4, left). With the mGT, both in
electric and in thermal follow mode, the amount of bio-LNG produced was lower. With the boiler, the bio-LNG
amount increased with the regenerator area: the reduction of the heat necessary to the bio-digester, led to a lower
consumption of biogas from the boiler, which was therefore available for bio-LNG production. The same trend was
found with the mGT in thermal follow mode. Since the turbine was controlled to keep the operating temperature inside
the digester, a reduction of heat consumption led to a larger availability of biogas for upgrading and liquefaction. In
the case of mGT in electric follow mode the bio-LNG production was constant, since the consumption of the turbine
did not depend on the regenerator size. It is also worth noting that in the case of electric follow mode, a minimum
regenerator area of about 6 m2 was necessary to obtain enough heat for the sludge. The electric consumption (Figure
4 right) was obviously maximum in the baseline case. With the mGT operating in electric follow mode the electric
consumption was zero, whereas in thermal follow mode the amount of electricity bought from the grid sharply
increased with the regenerator area, due to the larger amount of bio-LNG produced and to the consequent increase of
electric consumption.
660 A. Baccioli et al. / Energy Procedia 148 (2018) 655–662
6 Author name / Energy Procedia 00 (2018) 000–000

Fig. 3. Annual (left) and seasonal (right) thermal power requested by the Anaerobic Digesters.

Fig. 4. Average daily produced bio-LNG (left) and acquired electric energy (right).

From the trend of bio-LNG production and electric energy purchasing, it is hard to identify the optimal strategy,
since if, from one hand, the baseline case provided the highest bio-LNG production, from the other this is the strategy
which requires the highest electric energy purchase. Similarly, the mGT in electric follow mode did not require any
electric energy purchasing but provided less bio-LNG than that produced in all the other strategies. The evaluation of
the avoided CO2 emissions (Figure 5) may provide an indication about the effectiveness of the various strategies. As
stated above, the avoided CO2 emissions consider the CO2 emission for energy production and the avoided emission
due to the replacement of diesel oil with bio-LNG for final users (heavy-duty vehicles). The trend of the CO2 avoided
emission was the same both for the baseline case and for the mGT in thermal follow mode. The sludge regenerator
has a benefic effect since avoided CO2 emissions increases with the size of this component.
This trend highlights that the largest savings in CO2 emissions were obtained with large bio-LNG production,
despite the highest amount of purchased electric energy. This is due to the greatest impact on CO2 emissions of the
replacement of diesel oil with bio-LNG rather than of the electric energy production. For this reason, in the case of
mGT operating in electric follow mode, although no electric energy purchasing was necessary, the CO2 avoided
emission were lower than in the other cases. Since in this case the production of bio-LNG did not depend on the
regenerator, the CO2 avoided emissions were constant with the regenerator area.
The seasonal trend of bio-LNG production, acquired electric energy and CO2 avoided emission are reported in
Figure 5 left in the case of a 40 m2 regenerator. The avoided emissions strongly depend on the heat requested by the
system, and on the turbine efficiency. With a 40 m2 regenerator, the heat request is very low and therefore just one
mGT module was operating. During winter the efficiency of the mGT was high, but the produced bio-LNG was lower
with the mGT than with the boiler. In spring and autumn, the efficiency of the mGT decreases but the largest amount
of bio-LNG lead to higher avoided emissions. In summer, the efficiency of the mGT was very low (the mGT module
operated at very low load) and the amount of bio-LNG produced was not compensated by the produced electric energy
in terms of CO2 emissions.
 A. Baccioli et al. / Energy Procedia 148 (2018) 655–662 661
Author name / Energy Procedia 00 (2018) 000–000 7

These analyses did not univocally lead to the definition of an optimal bio-LNG production strategy and therefore
an economic analysis was performed. The profitability indexes of the various cases as a function of the bio-LNG and
electricity cost were estimated (Figure 6). The analysis was reported for the baseline case and for the mGT operating
in thermal follow mode. The profitability indexes for mGT operating in electric follow mode were not reported since
the values were largely lower than those obtained in the other cases. The highest values of the profitability indexes
were obtained in the case of large regenerator area, which maximized bio-LNG production.
From the analysis of the maps of Figure 6, it is apparent that with both the boiler and the mGT, the profitability
index is positive in large ranges of electricity costs and bio-LNG sale price. The boiler was more convenient in the
case of high bio-LNG prices and low electric energy costs (light blue area of Figure 7), whereas the mGT resulted
more convenient at high electric energy costs and low bio-LNG prices (red area of Figure 7). The boiler became
competitive in comparison to the mGT operated in thermal follow mode if the selling price of bio-LNG was higher
than 0.63 $/kg and for electricity costs lower than 0.12 $/kWh.

Fig. 5. Average daily CO2 avoided emissions

Fig. 6. Profitability index as a function of the electricity cost and of bio-LNG selling price for Fig. 7. Convenience regions of mGT and
the baseline case (left) and for mGT operating in thermal follow mode (right) of boiler as a function of the electricity
cost and of bio-LNG selling price.

5. Conclusion

In this study, a preliminary analysis on the possible operation modes of an anaerobic digestion plant to produce
bio-LNG was investigated. The digestion plant of Viareggio was considered as a reference. Three different operation
modes have been considered:
662 A. Baccioli et al. / Energy Procedia 148 (2018) 655–662
8 Author name / Energy Procedia 00 (2018) 000–000

1) a biogas fueled boiler provides the heat necessary to the digesters and the entire electric need is acquired
from the grid;
2) a mGT operating in electric follow mode satisfies the electric energy need and part of the thermal one;
3) a mGT operating in thermal follow mode covers the entire thermal need and part of the electric one.
The system was analyzed in off-design conditions over one year by considering as reference four characteristic
days, one for each season. The bio-LNG production strongly depends on the operation mode and in the first and third
case also on the size of the sludge regenerator: bio-LNG production largely improves with the size of this device. The
potential avoided CO2 emissions are maximum (and practically the same) in the case of using the boiler or the mGT
operating in thermal follow mode. The economic analysis shows that mGT is more suitable than the boiler for high
electric energy costs, whereas the boiler could be convenient only if the bio-LNG selling price was higher than 0.63
$/kg and the cost of electric energy lower than 0.12 $/kWh.

Acknowledgements

The research is part of the project BIO2ENERGY funded by MIUR-Regione Toscana DGRT 1208/2012 and
MIUR-MISE-Regione Toscana DGRT 758/2013 PAR FAS 2007-2013- Linea d'Azione 1.1 in sub-programme FAR-
FAS 2014.

References

[1] Nghiem L, Koch K, Bolzonella D, Drewes J. Full scale co-digestion of wastewater sludge and food waste: Bottlenecks and possibilities.
Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews. 2017;72:354-362.
[2] Cavinato C, Bolzonella D, Pavan P, Fatone F, Cecchi F. mesophilic and thermophilic anaerobic co-digestion of waste activated sludge and
source sorted biowaste in pilot- and full-scale reactors. Renewable Energy 2013;55:260–265.
[3] Da Ros C, Cavinato C, Pavan P, Bolzonella D. Winery waste recycling through anaerobic co-digestion with waste activated sludge. Waste
Management 2014;34(11):2028–35.
[4] Cavinato C, Da Ros C, Pavan P, Cecchi F, Bolzonella D. Treatment of waste activated sludge together with agro-waste by anaerobic digestion:
focus on effluent quality. Water Science Technology 2014;69(3):525–31.
[5] Iacovidou E, Ohandja DG, Voulvoulis N. Food waste co-digestion with sewage sludge – Realising its potential in the UK. Journal of
Environment Management 2012: 112: 267-274.
[6] Weyman-Jones, Thomas, Júlia Mendonça Boucinha, and Catarina Feteira Inácio. "Measuring electric energy efficiency in Portuguese
households: a tool for energy policy." Management of Environmental Quality: An International Journal 26(3) (2015): 407-422.
[7] Ryckebosch E, Drouillon M, Vervaeren H. Techniques for transformation of biogas to biomethane. Biomass and Bioenergy.
2011;35(5):1633-1645.
[8] Chang H, Chung M, Kim M, Park S. Thermodynamic design of methane liquefaction system based on reversed-Brayton cycle. Cryogenics.
2009;49(6):226-234.
[9] Onishi V, Quirante N, Ravagnani M, Caballero J. Optimal synthesis of work and heat exchangers networks considering unclassified process
streams at sub and above-ambient conditions. Applied Energy. 2018;224:567-581.
[10] Baccioli A, Antonelli M, Frigo S, Desideri U, Pasini G. Small scale bio-LNG plant: Comparison of different biogas upgrading techniques.
Applied Energy. 2018;217:328-335.
[11] Pecorini, I., Bacchi, D., Albini, E., Baldi, F., Galoppi, G., Rossi, P., Paoli, P., Ferrari, L., Carnevale, E.A., Peruzzini, M., Lombardi, L.,
Ferrara, G. The Bio2energy Project: Bioenergy, Biofuels and Bioproducts from Municipal Solid Waste and Sludge, EUBCE 2017 – 25th
European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 12-15 June 2017 Stockholm, Sweden ISBN: 978-88-89407-17-2; DOI:
10.5071/25thEUBCE2017-1BO.1.1
[12] Pecorini I, Ferrari L, Baldi F, Albini E, Galoppi G, Bacchi D et al., Energy recovery from fermentative biohydrogen production of biowaste:
a case study based analysis, Energy Procedia. 126 (2017) 605-612.
[13] Baccioli A, Ferrari L, Pecorini I, Marchionni A, Susini C, Desideri U. Feasibility analysis of a biogas-fuelled trigeneration plant operating
with a mGT, Proceedings of ECOS 2018, Guimarães, Portugal, 17-22 June 2018
[14] http://www.isprambiente.gov.it/it (last access 05/28/2017)
[15] https://www.volker-quaschning.de/datserv/CO2-spez/index_e.php (last access 05/28/2018)
[16] http://www.hevac.ie (last access 05/24/2018)
[17] Sinnott R, Towler G. Chemical engineering design. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann; 2009
[18] Turton R. Analysis, synthesis, and design of chemical processes. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall; 2012;
[19] Pasini G, Baccioli A, Palmerini E, Motolese, E, Antonelli M, Frigo S, Technical-economic evaluation of a small liquefaction plant for bio-
LNG production, Proceedings of EUBCE 2018, Copenhagen, Denmark 14-17 May 2018..
[20] https://advancedtech.airliquide.com (last access 05/25/2018)