Infographic “Biogas Potential of Agriculture and Food Industry” displays opportunities for production and utilization of biogas in Ukraine.

Biogas is a blend of methane, carbon dioxide and minor admixtures. The content of methane determines an energy value of biogas and depends on kind of substrate (a raw material) that is used for production of biogas. Thus the biogas potential is evaluated via amount of methane of biogas origin – biomethane.

The most common substrates are agricultural wastes (manure, straw) and food industry wastes (brewery grains, beet pulp, milk whey, etc) (pictogram 1). A promising substrate type is energy crops (maize silage) that are grown especially for biogas production (pictogram 2). Besides that, biogas can be extracted from communal sector wastes (landfill and sewage gas).

Biogas arises from a substrate decay (anaerobic digestion) caused by bacteria inside a bioreactor. The process is accompanied by generation of substantial quantities of digestate that is a perfect biological fertilizer. Digestate substitutes mineral fertilizers (pictogram 3). 

Biogas is normally purified from sulfide impurities and used as a fuel for heat or combined heat and power (CHP) generation (pictogram 4).  An alternative way of biogas utilization is its enrichment to biomethane that is completely equivalent to natural gas (pictogram 5).