Summary

Biogas infrastructure from farm-scale to regional scale, line-pack storage in biogas grids.

The number of local and regional initiatives encouraging the production and use of regional produced energy grows. In these new developments biogas can play a role, as a producer of energy, but also in balancing the electricity grid. Collection of biogas from several digesters to a hub supports the efficient use of the biogas. Recently we reported on a biogas transport model; the model assesses transport costs and energy use in a grid with fishbone and star layout collecting biogas (DOI:10.1016/j.biombioe.2016.01.005). When a biogas grid is used for the transport of biogas, the grid can serve as a storage of biogas as well. A model was developed to describe line-pack storage in a transport grid for different digester scale, region size and grid lay-out. Line-pack storage does not require additional investments and variable costs consist of extra compression costs. Storage costs and maximum line-pack storage are estimated in a biogas transport grid with star lay-out and fishbone lay-out. A comparison is made with other types of biogas storage, pressurized pipes and pressureless storage; the costs structure of line-pack storage, i.e. in €ct m-3h-1, differs from these other types.