Since manure sources are widely dispersed and disposal of manure at landfills or direct application onto soil is often restricted by laws in many countries, selecting suitable sites for manure management facilities is an important step for sustainable livestock farming. The main purpose of this study is to explore suitable locations for siting large-scale biogas plants from livestock manure in Bangladesh by using a spatial modeling. The study analyzed land suitability based on several geographical, topographical, environmental and socio-economic criteria which was also optimized by reflecting optimum transportation distances from manure sources to the chosen sites using GIS (geographic information system) network analysis. Then the socio-economic and environmental benefits of selected biogas plants were estimated through mathematical equations. It was found that 475, 15 and 68 large-scale biogas plants are spatially possible from large animals, small animals and poultry manure respectively to produce a total electricity of 7,682.72 GWh (gigawatt) in 2023. By the implementation of the proposed scenarios, at least 8.69% of the renewable energy production will be increased in Bangladesh and approximately 6,636.09 gigagram CO2eq GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions will be reduced by disposing 90.14 million tons of manure in each year. Hence, the potential biogas plant locations selection and benefits analysis of different scenarios will be guide in the establishment of a local decision for the utilization of regional bioenergy from livestock manure in Bangladesh.
Keywords:
Subject: Environmental and Earth Sciences - Sustainable Science and Technology
Copyright: This open access article is published under a Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 license, which permit the free download, distribution, and reuse, provided that the author and preprint are cited in any reuse.
Preprints.org is a free preprint server supported by MDPI in Basel, Switzerland.