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- Title
Operating Performance of Full-Scale Agricultural Biogas Plants in Germany and China: Results of a Year-Round Monitoring Program.
- Authors
Zhou, Lijun; Hülsemann, Benedikt; Cui, Zhiyang; Merkle, Wolfgang; Sponagel, Christian; Zhou, Yuguang; Guo, Jianbin; Dong, Renjie; Müller, Joachim; Oechsner, Hans; Fernandez-Morales, Francisco Jesus
- Abstract
Germany (DE) and China (CN) have different political approaches in supporting the biogas sector. Three German and three Chinese large-scale biogas plants (BGPs) were evaluated as part of a year-round monitoring program. Laboratory methods were utilized to analyze the chemical indicators. Results showed a stable anaerobic digestion process without system failures in all BGPs. The methane yield had a range of 0.23–0.35 m3CH4/kgODM for DE BGPs and 0.11–0.22 m3CH4/kgODM for CN BGPs, due to different substrates and working temperatures. Financial analyses indicated that DE BGPs are viable under their current feed-in tariffs contracts. Their financial internal rate of return (IRR) ranged between 8 and 22%. However, all CN BGPs had negative IRRs, indicating that they are financially unfeasible. Risk analyses illustrated that DE BGPs will face financial nonviability if benefits decrease by 9–33% or costs increase by 10–49%, or if a combined worse case (benefit decrease and cost increase) of 5–20% occurs. Incentives to BGP operations are particularly important in China, where the government should consider switching the construction-based subsidy to a performance-based subsidy system to motivate the operators. BGP monitoring is necessary to understand the performance, in addition to briefing policymakers in case a policy reform is needed.
- Subjects
CHINA; GERMANY; BIOGAS; INTERNAL rate of return; ANAEROBIC digestion; CORPORATE finance; SYSTEM failures
- Publication
Applied Sciences (2076-3417), 2021, Vol 11, Issue 3, p1271
- ISSN
2076-3417
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.3390/app11031271