A biogas plant can produce three things: electricity, heat and gas. For converting biogas into electricity, a combined heat and power plant is being used. Different engines are used for this, but the most important ones are:

• Spark ignition engines
• Compression ignition engines
• Gas injection diesel engine

The engine produces heat which can be used for different things:

• Heating the digester
• Heating houses and companies near by
• Drying sludge, wood or pellets
• Converting the heat with an adsorption-system to cooling

Apart from the construction elements, other installations, for example measure instruments, are necessary. The biogas plant outputs depend on the criteria for the use. The gas could be used for vehicles and be fed into the natural gas grid. After knowing how much gas, heat and electricity production might be used, a detailed plant system, including the number of digesters, the possible gas cleaning system and the gas changing system, for input mass and composition is required .

Engine power = 100 kW el
Efficiency factor = 31.1 %
Running time = 8,000 h / a

1. What is biogas?
2. Why is biogas sustainable?
3. What are the potentials of biogas?
4. What is industrial biogas polygeneration?
5. What is anaerobic digestion?
6. What is the standard process of biogas production?
7. How is biogas used?
8. What materials are fed into a biogas plant (input)?
9. What kind of preliminary treatment do the substrates need?
10. What kind of components does a biogas plant have?
11. What kind of gas cleaning is necessary?
12. What outputs does a biogas plant have?