'Old Cogen' is Dead: Determining the Best Use of Biogas in a Dynamic Environment

The concept of continuously running a cogeneration system on municipal biogas must be reimagined. As electric rates shift toward time-of-use, as codigestion creates opportunities for increased biogas production and revenue, and as new technologies are deployed, Combined Heat and Power (CHP) facilities must seek to exploit every opportunity to produce more power, produce it at the right time, and for the right price. In the meantime, if you could choose to have any type of biogas system at any point in history, that system would be biomethane pipeline injection, and that time would be now. This paper demonstrates the challenges and opportunities facing wastewater utilities through case studies of wastewater treatment facilities that are currently in different phases of evaluating the best use of biogas or implementing a next-generation biogas utilization approach.