Economically efficient biogas production from manure fibres and straw

Energy produced from biogas is a key renewable resource in the transition from a fossil fuel driven energy sector towards increasing use of green energy.
A successful and sustainable growth of the biogas sector is conditioned by a supply of substrates and waste materials compatible with responsible use of arable lands, and safe food and feed production.
Among the vastly available but at present under exploited resources are cattle slurry and straw. Due to the character of the biomass it is difficult to achieve sufficient biogas yield without some kind of pre treatment. Recent year’s development in enzyme technology and physical pre treatment technologies may open up for the possibility of running biogas production solely on slurry/ manure and straw on the condition that technology and strategy for proper use of enzymes is developed. Key research questions include temperature control and management during pre treatment, biological inactivation during pre treatment, post digestion enzyme treatment on the degassed fiber fraction and the re-injection into the fermentor.
BIOMAN will for a series of SME’s develop physical and enzymatic pretreatment strategies and technology for biogas plants. This will enable the consortium member SME to bring complete solutions to the market and enable the agricultural sector to run biogas plants directly on cattle manure and straw.