Biogas and its opportunities—A review

Highlights

A comprehensive description of the biogas process is presented.

Main operational parameters influencing the biogas process are reviewed.

A historical overview of the biogas development is extensively presented.

The current status of anaerobic digestion for biogas production is discussed.

New horizons for exploitation and utilisation of biogas are proposed.

Abstract

Biogas production is a well-established technology primarily for the generation of renewable energy and also for the valorization of organic residues. Biogas is the end product of a biological mediated process, the so called anaerobic digestion, in which different microorganisms, follow diverse metabolic pathways to decompose the organic matter. The process has been known since ancient times and was widely applied at domestic households providing heat and power for hundreds of years. Nowadays, the biogas sector is rapidly growing and novel achievements create the foundation for constituting biogas plants as advanced bioenergy factories. In this context, the biogas plants are the basis of a circular economy concept targeting nutrients recycling, reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and biorefinery purposes. This review summarizes the current state-of-the-art and presents future perspectives related to the anaerobic digestion process for biogas production. Moreover, a historical retrospective of biogas sector from the early years of its development till its recent advancements gives an outlook of the opportunities that are opening up for process optimisation.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

Anaerobic digestion / Biogas / Biowastes / Solid waste / Manure / Industrial waste

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Innovation Fund Denmark under the project “SYMBIO  Integration of biomass and wind power for biogas enhancement and upgrading via hydrogen assisted anaerobic digestion” (Contract 12-132654).

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