Livestock manure and crop residue for energy generation: Macro-assessment at a national scale

From manure processing, the estimated economic potential was 0.8 TWhe y−1 of electricity at a representative generation cost of 25 ct€ kWhe−1, while that of biomethane was calculated to be 182 MM Nm3 y−1 at a representative generation cost of 98 € MM BTU−1. In addition, the economic potential for the mono-digestion of agricultural residue was estimated to be 1.1 TWhey−1 at a representative generation cost of 15.4 ct€ kWhe−1, while that of biomethane generation was 280 MM Nm3 y−1 at a generation cost of 40 € MM BTU−1. Manure co-digestion offered a significant increase of roughly 46% of the economic potential at the same representative cost as mono-digestion. The co-digestion option of using biomethane production for injection does not seem to be adequate when considering a national policy to boost biogas production. Electricity generation, however, may be a viable option that has major economic advantages with or without a feed-in tariff scheme.