Resource mapping and analysis of farm livestock manures - assessing the opportunities for biomass-to-energy schemes

Livestock farms produce manure, and this has a high potential for pollution. Alternative, environmentally acceptable disposal routes with potential financial benefits might lie in the development of biomass-to-energy schemes, which often provide fertiliser as a by-product. Two options are being seriously considered by industry in Europe: centralised anaerobic digestion (AD) and direct combustion. This paper outlines the use of resource mapping to assist in the siting of centralised AD schemes; similar techniques may also be used to site other types of biomass to energy schemes, including direct combustion of farm manures. The paper uses a study in the UK to show how resource mapping and analysis can be used to identify sources of collectable farmyard manure in order to determine the potential for AD plants. With the forthcoming introduction of the European Commission (EC) Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC) Directive, this could prove a valuable tool to highlight the priority areas where the potential for pollution could be a problem. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.