Biogas production from non-food lignocellulosic biomass waste.

Solutions developed

The EU-funded BioFuel Fab project is developing a self-sustainable and versatile energy solution to ensure this process is economically profitable and environmentally sustainable. Specifically, it is applying a digestion (high-temperature and high-pressure pre-treatment) process that makes woody biomass (derived from trees) suitable for anaerobic digestion. Overall, this innovative solution is expected to put the profitability of biogas production from lignocellulosic waste material on par with existing biogas plants that use energy crops as feedstock.

Main results

Performances are disruptive: the digestion process speed is increased up to 75%, empowering the AD plant capacity by 3 times. The innovation allows to reach a profitability of biogas production from lignocellulosic waste material to be comparable with energy crops and makes convenient to convert the existing biogas plants using energy crops as feedstock to a BioFuel Fab fed by woody wastes, with a payback for the investment of 2.5 years.