Energy potential of separately collected biowaste as raw material for a biogas plant - case study of Virovitica-Podravina County in Croatia

The paper discusses project of constructing a biogas plant for biological treatment of municipal biowaste in the Virovitica-Podravina and surrounding counties. In Virovitica-Podravina County the total amount of waste generated is 21,690 tons, which corresponds to 256 kg of waste per capita per year. If the neighbouring counties are included, the amount of waste generated increases to 190,172 t. In order to determine the potential of separately collected biowaste only kitchen (30.9%) and garden waste (5.7%) are included. The construction of the plant will significantly contribute to the improvement of the current waste management system and the reduction of biodegradable waste disposal. It is expected that the planned biowaste treatment plant could process about 12,948 t of biowaste per year, which corresponds to a plant capacity of 906 kWel. Total electricity production would be 7,251 MWel and 7,976 MWth based on an average of 8,000 operating hours per year.