The role of SOFC in the future of biogas plants in Italy

The biogas sector represents a perfectly integrated reality in Europe, particularly in Germany, Italy and France. Biogas allows the valorisation of waste products or by-products by transforming them into a versatile gas with high energy density, easily used in internal combustion engines to produce electricity and heat or transformable into biomethane suitable for injection into the national gas network. The numerous agricultural plants present in the Italian territory can play a fundamental role in the energy transition being a programmable renewable source able to follow the user demand. This document begins with an overview of Italy’s biogas sector, detailing current incentive systems, plant structure and components, types of biomasses used and the biogas upgrading processes. It then introduces new technologies that have the potential to transform the sector, especially in terms of efficiency and emissions reduction, with a particular focus on Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFCs). These technologies enable the generation of electricity from biogas with significantly higher efficiency than widely used internal combustion engines (ICE) and without the combustion process. Energy and economic analysis of different possible plant layouts of existing agricultural plants scattered across the Italian territory are then conducted. In particular, the possibility of using SOFC instead of ICE is analysed both in plants that only produce electricity and in cases where the cogenerator has the role of powering the auxiliary systems of the plant and the biomethane upgrading system. The support and data provided by the CMA (Monviso Agroenergia Consortium), which consists of 178 agricultural plants operating in Northern Italy, were essential for conducting these analyses.