The Biofuels Directive sets reference values for the quantity of biofuels and other renewable fuels to be placed on the transport market. Biogas from agricultural crops can be used to meet this directive. This paper investigates biogas production for three crop rotations: wheat, barley and sugar...

Four technologies are investigated which produce energy from municipal solid waste (MSW): incineration, gasification, generation of biogas and utilisation in a combined heat and power (CHP) plant, generation of biogas and conversion to transport fuel.

Three wastes are examined: agricultural slurry, municipal solid waste (MSW) and sludge (wastewater bio-solids). The recommended utilisation of biogas generated from the digestion of agricultural slurry and of the organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) is as a transport fuel. Due to...

The utilisation of anaerobic digestion to produce biogas as an energy source is a mature technology in many European countries but is yet to be developed in Ireland. In 2009, the EU issued the Renewable Energy Source Directive 2009/28/EC which requires a 20% share of renewable energy sources...

The circular economy aims to promote the use of recycled products and to close the nutrient cycle loop by avoiding nutrient leakage and detrimental environmental effects, while also reducing the dependency on fossil fuels. The production of nitrogen is energy-intensive, requiring natural gas,...

The deployment of wind energy is constrained by wind uncontrollability, which poses operational problems on the electricity supply system at high penetration levels, lessening the value of wind-generated electricity to a significant extent. This paper studies the viability of hydrogen production...

Biogas may be utilised for Combined Heat and Power (CHP) production or for transport fuel production (CH4-enriched biogas). When used to produce transport fuel either electricity is imported to power the plant or some of the biogas is used in a small CHP unit to meet electricity demand on site....

This paper considers biodiesel production from residues; tallow and used cooking oil (UCO). The tallow system is more complex involving two processes. The first process is rendering in which tallow (animal fat) and Meat and Bone Meal (MBM) are produced from the slaughter of cattle. MBM is...

The Biofuels Directive places an onus on EU member states to ensure that biofuels are placed on their markets. This paper investigates the use of CH4-enriched biogas as a fuel. A number of options, which produce CH4-enriched biogas, were analysed from technical, economic and environmental...

Ireland is heavily dependent on imported transport fuel. The bill in 2008 was €5.9 billion. Because of the significant resources in organic residues and feedstocks there is readily available potential to substitute 8.4% of oil with indigenously produced biomethane, a renewable gaseous...