Dairy cattle biogas usage in microturbines for energy generation and thermal exploitation

Abstract

The increase in confined cattle breeding reflects the modernization and automation of farming, which has significantly intensified in recent years and caused an increase in the energy demand of rural properties. This study investigated the use of biogas generated from dairy cattle manure confined in gas microturbines on a farm to generate electricity and the energy use of exhaust gases. At the end of the study, 6,195 to 16,077 kWh month-1 of electricity was obtained, which corresponds to 43.3% of the property's self-sufficiency energy demand. By performing an exhaust gas energy exploitation, between 6.8 and 13.6 m3 day-1 of water heated to 368 K can be produced, or between 11,880 and 23,661 kWh month-1 of cooling capacity can be obtained using a liquid cooler.