Greenhouse Gas Emissions From a Community Anaerobic Digester with Mixed Organic Wastes

Abstract

Opportunities for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through farm manure management systems and the implementation of anaerobic digestion are of growing interest to farmers, electric utilities, and environmentalists alike. There is a prevalent concern however, that, certain elements of centralized anaerobic digestion (e.g. transportation) constitute emissions additional to current manure management systems. This thesis attempts to shed light on this dilemma by developing a scenario modeling methodology to project potential GHG emissions from five potential anaerobic digestion systems that have been proposed by the Cornell University Department of Biological and Environmental Engineering and the Department of Applied Economics and Management in the context of an economic feasibility study completed for the Town of Lowville, New York, and the County of Lewis, New York. The proposed Lewis County community digester is presented as an example of community-based co-digestion of mixed organic wastes and its implications for GHG emission reductions accounting within an economic feasibility framework.