Evaluation of biomethane technologies in Europe – Technical concepts under the scope of a Delphi-Survey embedded in a multi-criteria analysis

Methane from biomass is a well suited renewable energy carrier with a wide range of applications. The main technologies for its production out of biomass are biochemical conversion from the upgrading of biogas and thermochemical conversion by gasification and methanation. Presently there exists no m...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Energy (Oxford) 2016-11, Vol.114, p.1176-1186
Main Authors: Billig, Eric, Thrän, Daniela
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
AHP
Bio-SNG
Biomethane
Delphi-survey
Multi-criteria analysis
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Summary:Methane from biomass is a well suited renewable energy carrier with a wide range of applications. The main technologies for its production out of biomass are biochemical conversion from the upgrading of biogas and thermochemical conversion by gasification and methanation. Presently there exists no methodology to compare the process alternatives for methane production from biomass. This paper investigates a comprehensive evaluation method based on a multi-criteria analysis. Due to the comparable well developed biomethane market in Europe, compared to other regions in the world, the study area was restricted to Europe. The weighting of the different criteria is carried out in two rounds as a pair-to-pair comparison of the criteria by experts from different technology fields in a Delphi-Survey. As a result, the prioritisation can be used to classify the biomass conversion technologies to convert biomass to biomethane. According to the weightings given by experts, the two criteria energy efficiency and production costs are of great importance compared to the other criteria. •Overview of technologies for renewable methane (biochemical and thermochemical).•Overview of multi-criteria analysis.•Novel methodology for comparison of biochemical and thermochemical conversion.•Delphi-Survey (approach and evaluation) in the field of biomethane resp. bio-SNG.
ISSN:0360-5442
DOI:10.1016/j.energy.2016.08.084