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oai:uvadoc.uva.es:10324/235252025-03-26T19:10:03Zcom_10324_1173com_10324_931com_10324_894com_10324_31059com_10324_954col_10324_1371col_10324_31061

Toledo Cervantes, Alma Estrada, José María Lebrero Fernández, Raquel Muñoz Torre, Raúl 2017-06-19T10:17:08Z 2017-06-19T10:17:08Z 2017 Algal Research, 2017, Volume 25,, Pages 237–243 2211-9264 http://uvadoc.uva.es/handle/10324/23525 10.1016/j.algal.2017.05.006 Algal Research Two biogas upgrading technologies, viz. an innovative algal-bacterial photobioreactor and a conventional activated carbon filter coupled with a water scrubber, were comparatively evaluated in terms of environmental, economic and social performance by using the IChemE Sustainability Metrics. The upgrading of 300 Nm3/h of biogas generated from the anaerobic digestion of mixed sludge in a wastewater treatment plant was used as a model scenario for the comparative analysis. Despite the algal-bacterial photobioreactor entailed 1860 times higher land requirements, the two-stage physical/chemical technology exhibited × 3.8 higher energy consumptions and larger environmental impacts in terms of material and water consumption and greenhouse gas emissions (the latter by a factor of ~ 45). The investment cost for the algal-bacterial photobioreactor was 1.6 times higher than that of its physical/chemical counterpart due to the biomass drying unit required to produce an algae-based fertilizer. However, the operating cost of the physical/chemical technology was ~ 7 times higher due to the frequent replacement of the activated carbon. A further analysis of the net present value (NPV 20) revealed that photosynthetic upgrading would yield revenues from year 5 of operation mainly due to the sale of the algal bio-fertilizer produced, even without tax incentives for bio-methane. eng info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International A comparative analysis of biogas upgrading technologies: Photosynthetic vs physical/chemical processes info:eu-repo/semantics/article