Page 181 - Materials Chemistry, Second Edition

Sustainability of (H 1 CH )
4
2
by Anaerobic Digestion via EROI
Approach and LCA Evaluations

B. Ruggeri, S. Sanfilippo and T. Tommasi

Abstract The contents of this Chapter focus on the theoretical sustainable energy
approach and its application to hydrogen and methane production, on the basis of
results obtained from experimental tests on the Anaerobic Digestion (AD) tech-
nology. The evaluation of sustainability is pursued through the life cycle assessment
(LCA), energy return on investment (EROI) and energy payback time (EPT)
approaches. The EROI and EPT parameters are defined and applied to score the
sustainability of the H 2 /CH 4 energy carrier. The evaluation of the indirect energy
following a life cycle assessment is consistent for the sustainability analysis. The
sustainability of AD technology strongly depends on the reactor diameter: for values
lower than 1 m the technology is not able to sustain the well-being of the society; the
effect of the insulating material as well as the labor could be very important, and in
this respect, thus, a sensitivity analysis on the sustainability is reported.

1 Introduction

The present energy crisis together with environmental issues, such as global
warming, has persuaded men to search new energy sources (Balat 2008). Different
renewable sources are now being exploited. Energy crops, wind power, water

B. Ruggeri (&) S. Sanfilippo
Department of Applied Science and Technology, Politecnico di Torino, Corso Duca degli
Abruzzi 24, 10129 Turin, Italy
e-mail: bernardo.ruggeri@polito.it
S. Sanfilippo
e-mail: sara.sanfilippo@polito.it
T. Tommasi
Center for Space Human Robotics, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Corso Trento 21, 10129
Turin, Italy
e-mail: tonia.tommasi@iit.it

A. Singh et al. (eds.), Life Cycle Assessment of Renewable Energy Sources, 169
Green Energy and Technology, DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4471-5364-1_8,
Ó Springer-Verlag London 2013