Research to explore farm-supplied alternative AD feedstock – Bioenergy Insight Magazine

A multi-disciplinary team at Teagasc, a state agency providing research, advisory and education in agriculture, horticulture, food, and rural development in Ireland, has held the first online meeting of the technical working group for a new anaerobic digestion (AD) project called FLEET.

FLEET will identify farm-scale, landscape-level and national-level economic and environmental implications of farm supplied alternative feedstock for AD at a regional level. The three-year research will be the first of its kind in Ireland to evaluate the potential for AD to address economic and environmental outcomes at an individual farm level using Teagasc, National Farm Survey data.

Dr Maurice Deasy, a post-doc researcher recently recruited to work on the project, said: The coming together of industry stakeholders in the technical working group will assist in the development and deployment in the Irish marketplace of competitive energy-related products, processes and systems, by identifying farm-scale economic and environmental consequences of alternative feedstock solutions for regional AD supply.

The project will assist in identifying knowledge gaps and provide guidance and support for policymakers.

FLEET is just one of several research projects underway at Teagasc on the topic of AD. Additional research is also taking place in Johnstown Castle and Grange into gaseous emissions for the sustainable production of AD feedstocks, recycling of the resultant digestate, as well as the fertiliser replacement value of the digestate and overall lifecycle assessment of AD systems. A collaborative project with the National University of Ireland Galway is also pursuing the optimisation of the AD process to improve biogas and biomethane yields.

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Research to explore farm-supplied alternative AD feedstock - Bioenergy Insight Magazine