Viabilidad medioambiental, energética y económica de la Biometanización de Residuos provenientes de la Industria Agroalimentaria en Extremadura

Abstract

The agrifood industry is reported to play a key role in the economic development of Extremadura and is responsible for the generation of vast volumes of high polluting wastes, which are typically featured by high moisture and organic matter contents. The present study is aimed at analyzing the environmental, economic and energy feasibility of the biomethanation of wastes from the three most relevant industrial activities in the Region (linked to the meat, tomato processing and olive mill industries) in order to mitigate the environmental impact of the inappropriate management of such by-products and to reduce the associated energy consumption rates. A series of anaerobic digestion experiments for the treatment of those wastes in continuous and semi-continuous mode, as well as various co-digestion tests involving different mixing configurations for pig slaughterhouse and tomato processing wastes, have been performed. As a result, all substrates under study are regarded as suitable to undergo an anaerobic digestion process for both energy valorisation and polluting charge reduction purposes. Moreover, the economic viability of the construction of biomethanation plants at industrial scale has also been analysed, which has implied the sizing of installation facilities for the treatment of the wastes generated by a standard plant in Extremadura. Finally, the potential hybridisation of biomethanation with photovoltaic solar technology (which would serve as extra power supply to meet the electric and thermal energy demand of Jamón y Salud Iberian Pig Slaughterhouse Plant) has also been accounted for.