Life cycle assessment of electricity production from anaerobic digestion of animal slurry in a farm scale plant

The aim of this study is to assess the environmental profile of electricity production from an AD plant fed with cattle slurry (100 kW). Using LCA method, the environmental performance of electricity production from biogas has been evaluated using 1 kWh of electricity as functional unit. For the definition of the environmental profile, all processes involved as well as the processes avoided by the biogas production system (e.g. thermal energy production) were evaluated. The most critical stages were identified. The results show that livestock slurries are a good feedstock for AD plants from an environmental point of view.