New Anaerobic Digestion (AD) project commences
Teagasc recently held the first online meeting of the technical working group for a new Anaerobic Digestion (AD) project called FLEET. Teagasc economist Dr Fiona Thorne is the principal investigator on the FLEET project, supported by the SEAI Research and development fund. Read more here
FLEET - 3 year project
It will identify farm scale, landscape level and national level economic and environmental implications of farm supplied alternative feedstock for Anaerobic Digestion (AD) at a regional level. This research will be the first of its kind in Ireland to evaluate the potential for Anaerobic Digestion (AD) to address economic and environmental outcomes at an individual farm level using Teagasc, National Farm Survey data. The willingness to adopt land use change will provide useful policy insights and will be at the forefront of knowledge generation relevant to the energy sector.
Dr Maurice Deasy, a post doc researcher recently recruited to work on the three year 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 policy makers”.
More Anaerobic Digestion (AD) Research at Teagasc
The FLEET project is just one of a number of research projects underway at Teagasc on the topic of AD. Further research is also on-going in Johnstown Castle and Grange led by Dr Dominika Krol and Dr Ciara Beausang into gaseous emissions for sustainable production of AD feedstocks, recycling of the resultant digestate as well as the fertiliser replacement value of the digestate and overall life cycle assessment of AD systems. A collaborative project with NUIG is also pursuing optimisation of the AD process to improve biogas / biomethane yields.
Read more on this topic Anaerobic Digestion
View full facsheet here on Anaerobic Digestion (PDF)