(363f) Optimal Supply Chain in Electric Power Generation from Biogas Produce from Manure in La Cienega Michoacan

The main environmental problem today is the pollution and the global warming, the carbon dioxide (CO₂) released the atmosphere is one of the main causes of the greenhouse effect and the principal factor of the global warming, this and other toxic compound are released in significant quantities during the burning of fossil fuels, which have been the main source of energy until today. However, it is expected depletion in reserves of fossil resources in the short term. Therefore, it is expected that from biofuels can reduce the negative environmental impact of the use of energy from fossil resources, these biofuels are produced from biomass and species of agricultural use such as corn, soybean, sunflower , palm, etc., because of their high carbohydrate content. Biofuels production and use increased from biomass are bioethanol and biodiesel. Therefore, the use of biomass can be the most promising way for the creation of an industry from biomass. With the best use of biomass in the energy sector it is possible to obtain numerous benefits for the sustainable development of the energy sector. In this sense, some research has presented the use of biomass as a source for the energy sector, have recently been reported several investigations focused on the processing of biomass as feedstock for the production of different products. Huber et al. (2006), Saxena et al. (2008) and Goyal et al. (2008) presented different ways to produce biofuels and biochemicals. Some reports such as Crabtree and El-Halwagi (1994) present several techniques for the synthesis of components from biomass taking into account the environmental impact. Also, Pistikopoulos et al. (1994) and Buxton et al. (1997) presented a methodology for minimizing the environmental impact considering alternatives reaction. It is known that disjunctive programming techniques are important to effectively solve optimization problems. Therefore, in the case of optimization techniques and logical decision, there have been numerous investigations, works such as Raman and Grossmann (1994) and Lee and Grossmann (2000) presented techniques based logic programming modeling. Recently, there have been works in which a systematic analysis is performed to determine the optimal route for a biorefinery taking into account the available raw material, intermediate products and routes of different processes. In this context, Pham and El-Halwagi (2012) presented an optimization methodology to determine the configuration of a biorefinery through a systematic approach. Ponce-Ortega et al. (2012) and Murillo-Alvarado et al. (2013) presented a systematic optimization model to determine the optimal configuration of a biorefinery considering several possibilities to determine the optimum route processing. Some investigations are aimed at the study of the production of biofuels, mainly bioethanol, as it is currently one of the most in-demand biofuels. In this regard, Huang et al. (2009) studied the effect of different species of biomass and the particle size in cellulosic ethanol production.

Currently, most research in the field of biofuels are focused on the production of biogas as an alternative for reducing fossil fuels, which currently has increased demand due to the multiple uses for power generation, heating , etc. Biogas is generally obtained by the biodegradation of organic material, so that one of the main sources as feedstock for biogas generation has proven to be waste and livestock waste, which can generate substantial environmental and economic benefits for the regions cattle. The current research in this area considering the biogas production from organic biomass, Amon et al., (2004) take into account the biogas production from agricultural biomass by the optimization of methane production from maize and the dairy cattle manure, Gelegenis et al., (2007) considering the biogas production and the optimization, the biogas production is from olive-mill wastewater using different conditions of biomass decomposition. In the biogas production is important considering the best operational conditions to obtain a better range of biomass conversion, in this study is proposed the manure transformation in anaerobic conditions.

To obtain the raw material of this case study is considering the region of La Cienega is a region made up of some municipalities in the eastern part of Jalisco and Michoacán in Mexico, this region is characterized by having a great potential in agricultural production, so it is one of the regions that have a significant economic growth. The region of La Cienega in the state of Michoacan includes the cities of Briseñas, Cojumatlán, Jiquilpan, Pajacuarán, Sahuayo, Venustiano Carranza, Villamar, Vista Hermosa and Ixtlán, which represent the cities that provide the raw material for the case study proposed.

The case Study

The case study proposed considering the following aspect, the region of La Cienega de Michoacan has a high production of cattle and pigs in this research considering the use of manure produced by livestock as raw material for the production of biogas, which is produced through anaerobic digestion of the raw material. In addition, the biogas produced can be used for energy production, which turns out to be a renewable source with great potential for energy production. In this sense, biogas production through livestock manure can be high both economic and environmental benefits, this because it can reduce the use of non-renewable energy and a reduction in the distribution of pollutants because manure can be deposited in places not established generating a problem of environmental pollution and health.

This study also propose a mathematical optimization model to determine the optimal supply chain for power generation through biogas produced by waste and livestock waste. The proposed mathematical model considers the economic benefits of energy production and biogas, which is considered the biogas generation costs and the possible installation of plants where biogas production process is carried out. In the case of power generation, the proposed model considers the possible installation of power plants, where it is considered applying different technologies for power generation, therefore the model is able to determine the best alternative for power generation considering greater economic benefit and reduced environmental impact. Finally, the energy obtained from biogas can be sent central and distributed plant form electricity generation; this electricity produce is sent to markets that demand energy. The mathematical model proposed, also considering the possible installation of the central and distributed plants, this plants can produce energy using two different technologies, energy using microturbine or internal combustion engine, for these reason the model proposed will be determine the best supply chain considering all the aspects involved to obtain electricity by the manure from the cities of La Ciénega. In addition, the biogas production process considering the use of water, for the reason in the case study is presented as use of fresh resources to assess the environmental impact due to the external use of water as well as cost. Once the biogas production process is done, the remaining waste can be sold as fertilizer which is a supplement to the economic benefit due to the application of this technology.

Results

The results show that the production of biogas from manure in these cities of La Ciénega can bring great economic and environmental benefits, as it can cover between 5 and 10 percent of total energy demand if these resources were well used. The use of such waste in biogas production can avoid the use of fossil fuels in energy production and thus reduce the environmental impact. In addition, a large percentage of earned profit gained from sales of final process residues, which are sold as fertilizer, which also brings an environmental benefit due to the decrease of toxic components.