Life cycle assessment of biogas production from co-digestion of cow manure and agricultural residues

Karimian, Vahid; Zareei, Samira; Salami, Payman

doi:10.22034/jrenew.2025.212879

Life cycle assessment of biogas production from co-digestion of cow manure and agricultural residues

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Vahid Karimian ¹

Samira Zareei ²

Payman Salami ¹

¹ Department of Biosystem Engineering, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Kurdistan, Sanandaj, Iran

² Department of Biosystems Engineering, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Kurdistan, Sanandaj, Iran

https://doi.org/10.22034/jrenew.2025.212879

Abstract

The increasing production of urban, rural, and industrial wastes and how to manage and bury these wastes is one of the challenges of human societies. Biogas is one of the types of renewable energy that is produced from organic materials known as biomass. In the present study, biogas production from anaerobic digestion of cow manure and residues of wheat, barley, and chickpea crops (with a ratio of 25:75) was investigated on a semi-industrial scale. Then its energy and life cycle indicators were evaluated. The study of energy indicators showed that in producing biogas from each ton of the combination of chickpea, wheat and barley residues with cow manure, the ratio of net energy was 1.649, 1.613, and 1.554, respectively. Also, in this process, the net energy benefit for each ton of the combination of chickpea, wheat, and barley residues with cow manure was equal to 12191.4, 11816.4 and 10956.554 MJ, respectively. In other words, the production of biogas from the combination of pea residues with cow manure had the best results and the combination of barley residues with cow manure had the weakest results. Intermediate environmental indicators and life cycle assessment in biogas production were evaluated in three scenarios of combining wheat, barley and chickpea residues with manure. According to the obtained results, the combination of chickpea residue with cow manure is more environmentally friendly than the other two combinations and is a more suitable scenario from the point of view of life cycle assessment.

Keywords

Anaerobic digestion

Barley

Environmental effects

Peas

Wheat

Subjects

Renewable and New Energy

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