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Purpose
Improving the economic feasibility of anaerobic digestion projects for processing dairy manure.
What did we do?
We completed a study that evaluated the economics of dairy manure granulation as means to export phosphorus from P-sensitive watersheds. To achieve this goal we developed a techno-economic optimization model that considers all dairy farms within the watershed simultaneously to determine the minimum break-even price for the granulated manure.
A second study was developed to assess the economics of anaerobic digestion using a techno-economic optimization model. We incorporated different revenue sources (power sale, methane destruction credits, renewable energy certificates (RECs) and tipping fee (if co-substrate is available). The model evaluated the project feasibility over ranges of values for technical and economic parameters to quantify the project resilience to uncertainty in process conditions.
What have we learned?
Future Plans
The information generated from these studies is being written into peer-review publications and factsheets to share insights of collaborative manure management with a wider audience.We are currently expanding the model by adding the option for manure transportation via pipelines. Furthermore, we are also incorporating additional biogas utilization technologies,i.e., natural gas sale over pipelines and also the utilization of power/heat on-site in manure upgrading and processing.
Corresponding author, title, and affiliation
Troy M. Runge, Associate Professor, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Corresponding author email
Other authors
Mahmoud A. Sharara, Rebecca Larson
Additional information
2. Sharara, Mahmoud, Apoorva Sampat, Laura W. Good, Amanda S. Smith, Pamela Porter, Victor M. Zavala, Rebecca Larson, and Troy Runge. “Spatially explicit methodology for coordinated manure management in shared watersheds.” Journal of Environmental Management 192 (2017): 48-56.
3. Sharara, Mahmoud, Qiang Yang, Thomas L. Cox, and Troy Runge. “Techno-economic assessment of dairy manure granulation.” In 2016 ASABE Annual International Meeting, p. 1. American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, 2016.
Acknowledgements
This work is based on research supported by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture for its financial support (USDANIFABRDI Grant No. 2012-10006-19423) and funding from Dane County, Wisconsin under Award Number 12486.