Integrated Cycles for Urban Biomass as a Strategy to Promote a CO2-Neutral Society—A Feasibility Study

The integration of closed biomass cycles into residential buildings enables efficient resource utilization and avoids the transport of biowaste. In our scenario called Integrated Cycles for Urban Biomass (ICU), biowaste is degraded on-site into biogas that is converted into heat and electricity. Nit...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Sustainability 2021-09, Vol.13 (17), p.9505
Main Authors: Meinusch, Nicole, Kramer, Susanne, Körner, Oliver, Wiese, Jürgen, Seick, Ingolf, Beblek, Anita, Berges, Regine, Illenberger, Bernhard, Illenberger, Marco, Uebbing, Jennifer, Wolf, Maximilian, Saake, Gunter, Benndorf, Dirk, Reichl, Udo, Heyer, Robert
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agricultural land
Biogas
Biomass
Carbon dioxide
Cost control
Cultural factors
Efficiency
Electricity
Energy
Engines
Feasibility studies
Fermentation
Fertilizers
Food
Fuel cells
Gases
Global warming
Homogenization
Hydroponics
Industrial plant emissions
Nitrification
Nitrogen
Onsite
Residential areas
Residential buildings
Resource utilization
Sustainability
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The integration of closed biomass cycles into residential buildings enables efficient resource utilization and avoids the transport of biowaste. In our scenario called Integrated Cycles for Urban Biomass (ICU), biowaste is degraded on-site into biogas that is converted into heat and electricity. Nitrification processes upgrade the liquid fermentation residues to refined fertilizer, which can be used subsequently in house-internal gardens to produce fresh food for residents. Our research aims to assess the ICU scenario regarding produced amounts of biogas and food, saved CO2 emissions and costs, and social–cultural aspects. Therefore, a model-based feasibility study was performed assuming a building with 100 residents. The calculations show that the ICU concept produces 21% of the annual power (electrical and heat) consumption from the accumulated biowaste and up to 7.6 t of the fresh mass of lettuce per year in a 70 m2 professional hydroponic production area. Furthermore, it saves 6468 kg CO2-equivalent (CO2-eq) per year. While the ICU concept is technically feasible, it becomes economically feasible for large-scale implementations and higher food prices. Overall, this study demonstrates that the ICU implementation can be a worthwhile contribution towards a sustainable CO2-neutral society and decrease the demand for agricultural land.
ISSN:2071-1050
2071-1050
DOI:10.3390/su13179505