Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/rser Spatial analysis of feedstock supply and logistics to establish regional biogas power generation: A case study in the region of Sicily Francesca Valenti a , Simona M.C. Porto a , Bruce E. Dale b , Wei Liao c, ⁎ a Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment, University of Catania, Via Santa Sofia, Catania, Italy b Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA c Anaerobic Digestion Research and Education Center, Department of Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Agriculture biomass Biogas plant GIS modeling Techno-economic analysis Renewable energy ABSTRACT A hypothetical regional biogas power generation system based on multiple biomass feedstocks for the Catania province in Sicily was developed. A three-step approach of data collection, GIS-based analysis, and techno- economic assessment was used to analyze and design the biogas power generation system. Based on the amount of available and useable biomass, the biogas power generation system with a nominal electricity capacity of 3.6 MW-e can convert 211,000 t/year biomass into 15,374,000 m 3 biogas, 30,000 metric ton soil amendment, and generate 23.1 GWh-e electricity and 35.5 GWh-e heat per year. The geographic information system (GIS) based analysis determines the size and location of four biogas plants in the system. The techno-economic as- sessment concludes that the system is able to satisfy 27% of the total agricultural electricity demand in the province and shows excellent economic performance with a discounted payback period of less than 6.5 years for the entire biogas power generation system. The results clearly demonstrate that the regional biogas production system can offer a sustainable solution for renewable electricity generation using agricultural residues and food wastes in Sicily. This study also elucidated that the three-step approach is a suitable method to carry out such analysis and to facilitate establishing biogas plants in different regions. 1. Introduction Rapid growth of the world's population, along with accelerating industrialization and expanding urbanization, has led to a dramatic increase in energy demand. To sustainably satisfy this demand, re- newable energy technologies must be implemented to balance and re- duce fossil energy use. Many renewable energy alternatives (i.e., solar, wind, hydro, geothermal, and biomass) have been intensively studied and developed in past decades. Considering cost effectiveness, prac- ticability, scalability, positive externalities and energy density, bioe- nergy often offers a versatile and realistic solution, particularly for rural communities where massive quantities of agricultural biomass and re- sidues are produced [1]. It has been estimated that, with implementa- tion of advanced bioenergy technologies, land-based biomass (ex- cluding biomass for food production) has an annual energy potential of between 200 and 500 Exajoule, which can make a major contribution to satisfying the world primary energy demand (500 Exajoule in 2008 and predicted 600–1000 Exajoule by 2050) [2]. A recent trend in sustainable bioenergy solutions is the renewed interest in using anaerobic digestion (AD) technology to treat agri- cultural wastes and biomass for biogas production [3,4]. AD is a bio- logical process in which a consortium of anaerobic microbes (bacteria and archaea) synergistically work together to generate biogas (ap- proximately 60% methane and 40% carbon dioxide with smaller amounts of other gases), capture nutrients (primarily phosphorus and nitrogen), and control odor. Many studies have been conducted to improve digestion efficiency and enhance its economic performance. These include designing new reactor configurations to better digest different feedstocks [5], running co-digestion (using multiple feed- stocks to balance nutrient conditions) to enhance biogas production [6], and upgrading raw biogas to high-quality fuels such as biomethane, a pipeline-quality replacement for fossil natural gas [7]. In Europe, particularly Italy, a majority of the biogas has been used to produce electricity due to feed-in tariffs [8,9], even though new incentives are being implemented to encourage biogas upgrading for fuel and pipe- line-quality biomethane production [10,11]. Therefore, the focus of the study is still on biogas power generation. Besides development of digestion technologies, feedstock supply https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2018.08.022 Received 2 May 2017; Received in revised form 8 August 2018; Accepted 15 August 2018 ⁎ Correspondence to: Department of Biosystems & Agricultural Engineering, Michigan State University, 524 S. Shaw Ln. Room 202, East Lansing, MI 48824-1323, USA. E-mail address: liaow@msu.edu (W. Liao). Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 97 (2018) 50–63 1364-0321/ © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. T