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Sustainability of (H2 + CH4) by Anaerobic Digestion via EROI Approach and LCA Evaluations

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Life Cycle Assessment of Renewable Energy Sources

Part of the book series: Green Energy and Technology ((GREEN))

Abstract

The contents of this Chapter focus on the theoretical sustainable energy approach and its application to hydrogen and methane production, on the basis of results obtained from experimental tests on the Anaerobic Digestion (AD) technology. The evaluation of sustainability is pursued through the life cycle assessment (LCA), energy return on investment (EROI) and energy payback time (EPT) approaches. The EROI and EPT parameters are defined and applied to score the sustainability of the H2/CH4 energy carrier. The evaluation of the indirect energy following a life cycle assessment is consistent for the sustainability analysis. The sustainability of AD technology strongly depends on the reactor diameter: for values lower than 1 m the technology is not able to sustain the well-being of the society; the effect of the insulating material as well as the labor could be very important, and in this respect, thus, a sensitivity analysis on the sustainability is reported.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Applied Science and Technology, Politecnico di Torino, Corso Duca degli Abruzzi 24, 10129, Turin, Italy

    B. Ruggeri & S. Sanfilippo

  2. Center for Space Human Robotics, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Corso Trento 21, 10129, Turin, Italy

    T. Tommasi

Authors
  1. B. Ruggeri
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  2. S. Sanfilippo
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  3. T. Tommasi
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to B. Ruggeri .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. New Delhi, India

    Anoop Singh

  2. PRODEM, Mol, Belgium

    Deepak Pant

  3. Bagsvaerd, Denmark

    Stig Irving Olsen

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Ruggeri, B., Sanfilippo, S., Tommasi, T. (2013). Sustainability of (H2 + CH4) by Anaerobic Digestion via EROI Approach and LCA Evaluations. In: Singh, A., Pant, D., Olsen, S. (eds) Life Cycle Assessment of Renewable Energy Sources. Green Energy and Technology. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-5364-1_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-5364-1_8

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4471-5363-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4471-5364-1

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