Environmental advantages of treatment plants generating biomethane from food waste

Biomethane is an emerging sector in Europe as evolution of the conventional approach of co-generation of biogas based on an engine. The countries in Europe are facing this option according to different temporal dynamics. From the technical point of view, a common need is to have available tools and calculations suitable to analyse the environmental advantages of this approach. The present article compares the emissions from three options for biogas valorisation: combined heat and power generation for electric energy supply to an electricity distribution network, biomethane production through pressurised water scrubbing and biomethane production through chemical absorption. In the last two cases, biomethane is considered for usage by public natural-gas buses. Data and parameters used for the balances are taken from international databases. Results demonstrate the advantages of biomethane.