Biogas Provides Multiple Value-Added Benefits to Society as a Whole
Agricultural
Anaerobic digestion of livestock manure and organic food residuals provides security to the agricultural/ food sector. Several benefits include:
- financial diversification and risk mitigation through energy sales
- implementing strong nutrient management practices
- supporting local processing of agricultural production
- reducing commercial fertilizer requirements and costs
Economic
The green economy benefits of biogas are considerable and include:
- local job creation in technical, manufacturing and construction/trades
- economic development generating billions of dollars of investment in rural communities
- creation of useful by-products from wastes, acting as a significant economic multiplier
Energy
As a source of renewable energy, biogas has unique characteristics and offers many energy end uses. Biogas can:
- generate reliable, flexible power 24/7
- manage intermittent renewable power supply through means of storage and flexible power
- improve/support local infrastructure and power quality
- upgrade to renewable natural gas (RNG) for injection into the natural gas grid, delivering ‘green’ renewable energy through existing infrastructure
- be compressed for use as transportation fuel, or direct replacement of fossil-sourced natural gas in household heating, or industrial, commercial and institutional processes
Environmental
The environmental benefits of biogas are numerous.
- capture and use of methane, a greenhouse gas 21 times worse than CO2
- convert high energy waste streams into fuel, diverting them from landfill
- control weed seed germination, reducing herbicide use
- remove odour-causing compounds
As taken from the Biogas Association website.
