MOOP - Dezentrale Energie- und Ökosystemleistungen

Situation

By-products from agriculture, especially liquid and solid manure, represent the largest additionally usable biomass source in Switzerland. The sustainable potential amounts to 27 PJ, representing 2/3 of all additionally available biomass usable for energy production. Manure is theoretically an ideal substrate for biogas production, but contrary to popular belief, there is currently no agricultural biogas plant in Switzerland that uses only manure as substrate. Currently all biogas plants produce the majority of their biogas from so-called co-substrates (e.g. biowaste, spent coffee grounds, glycerol, etc.) and not from the manure fraction. However, the additional domestic potential in terms of energy of such co-substrates is marginal (4 PJ) compared to manure. Thus, a future biogas plant in Switzerland – except co-substrates such as glycerol are still increasingly imported from abroad – must work technically and economically with manure only. The two major challenges to meet the requirement are i) the high water content of manure (> 95 wt%) and ii) the high recalcitrance, which leads to poor digestibility of manure to biogas. In a current biogas plant, only about 25% of the organic matter can be converted. The project MOOP will tackle both challenges.