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On November 4, 2021 at 10:53:24 AM UTC, Gravatar Gillianne Bowman:
  • Added field Summary with value Switzerland is facing a far-reaching transformation of its energy system. To identify solutions to the technical, social, and political challenges linked to the energy transition, the Federal Council and Parliament launched eight Swiss Competence Centers for Energy Research (SCCERs) in 2014 in support of the Swiss Government’s Energy Strategy 2050. In the SCCER BIOSWEET (BIOmass for SWiss EnErgy fuTure), the focus is on biomass and biomass conversion. Even though biogas technology is a highly developed and ready-to-use technology, the use of manure as an energy source is still very limited in Switzerland. Anaerobic digestion (AD) is a promising technology to generate renewable bioenergy in the form of heat, electricity, and fuel from manure. Furthermore, AD improves fertilizer quality and reduces mineral fertilizer use. Thus, manure should be recognized as a crucial local resource to be used for soil fertilization, nutrient recovery, and energy supply, leading to reduced greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In this white paper, we assess the situation regarding manure in Switzerland to identify the reasons for its low utilization as energy source. The complexity and varying nature of manure makes this feedstock difficult to use for other sustainable products, and as such, its use for energy does not compete with other pathways. Today, manure conversion is characterized by small-scale converters, which suffer from low efficiency of the electricity conversion from gas. The efficiency of the energy provision from manure could be improved by introducing more efficient techniques throughout the AD process chain. This includes separation of manure into solid and liquid fractions, and technologies linked to better pre-treatment of manure (microbial pre-digestion, thermochemical pretreatment) as well as methanation, gas cleaning and fuel cells. Besides AD, hydrothermal gasification and biochar production are interesting emerging technologies with great potential for quantitative manure conversion. The overall modeling of the energy system points to the high relevance of the use of manure as energy source. To summarize, the use of manure for energy purposes in Switzerland could be much greater than it is today. However, this would require an expansion of the biogas infrastructure and the current incentives. In addition to having potential environmental benefits (particularly reducing CO2 emissions), providing energy from manure helps to stabilize the energy system, in combination with other renewables, and makes it possible to achieve greater energy independence from traditional fossil fuel sources. to Biogas from animal manure in Switzerland