Barriers to Biogas Utilization for Renewable Energy – What's Keeping WWTPs from Using Biogas

The Water Environment Research Foundation (WERF) and New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) are conducting a project with Brown and Caldwell, Black & Veatch, Hemenway Inc., and the Northeast Biosolids and Residuals Association (NEBRA) to determine the barriers that wastewater utilities face when implementing anaerobic digestion and combined heat and power (CHP) projects. The project team developed an online survey to determine the most significant barriers facing utilities; this survey was distributed nationally and completed by over 200 respondents. The survey findings were then presented and discussed with dozens of utility representatives at four focus groups – in Miami FL, New York NY, Sacramento CA, and Chicago, IL – timed with industry conferences.Many of the findings of the project were not surprising. Of the ten barrier categories introduced as potential barriers at the beginning of the project, nine were deemed significant, according the broad input and testing conducted. However, it became clear that the economics barriers – inadequate payback/economics and lack of available capital – were dominant. Barriers fell into two categories: policy factors such as regulatory permitting, and human factors, such as decision-making. The following findings became evident during this project:• The largest, most widespread barriers to biogas use are economic, related to higher priority demands on limited capital resources or to perceptions that the economics do not justify the investment.• Outside agents such as power utilities for CHP and gas utilities for renewable compressed natural gas can be significant barriers.• Air permitting requirements can create an extremely significant barrier in specific geographies/permitting situations.• Public agencies' decision-making bureaucracy/configuration can hinder biogas use. Advocates are needed within individual agencies to overcome institutional inertia and promote utility-specific biogas use projects.• A surprisingly high percentage of our respondents from smaller-capacity facilities have found means to justify biogas use projects; as such, it seems that textbook 5- or 10-mgd lower-capacity barriers can be overcome with creative thinking. In juxtaposition, a number of mid-sized plants (10 to 25 mgd) also identified inadequate gas production as a barrier.• There has been considerably more interest and investment in biogas use over the past five years than in the prior years.• There is also greater interest in enhanced efficiency, operational cost reduction, and sustainability today that supports biogas use projects.This much-needed research has revealed the barriers that impede more widespread use of biogas as a renewable energy source and identified some mechanisms for mitigating those barriers.