Die Bodenkultur - Journal for Land Management, Food and Environment

B. Stürmer and M. Eder:

Modeling and optimization of feedstock costs for biogas plants

Summary

With increasing size of biogas plants, the importance of harmonized mechanization of harvesting and transporting of biomass increases. Beside the logistic costs, cultivation costs can affect the choice of energy crops. The model, which is presented at this article, was developed to optimize the handling system of producing and storing feedstock for biogas production at least costs. By choosing best capacity of transportation and best chopper performance in dependence of used energy crops, biomass yield and transport distance machinery chain will be optimized. Furthermore, the decision about size of slurry transportation tank influences the feedstock costs. The results of this study emphasize the economic advantage of silage maize as feedstock. The use of slurry from animal production and the covering of biogas slurry depot lead to lower total feedstock costs. Key words: Biogas, feedstock costs, optimization model, harvest logistics, slurry application.