Methane Potentials from Grape Marc by a Laboratory Scale Plant

The choice of grape marc as biomass to produce energy has a double purpose. It provides a valid alternative to the handing over to distilleries, which represents a considerable cost for the community and also gives value to a form of agricultural-industrial waste. In this paper, the results of an experiment performed at ERSAF (Lombardy) in their laboratories in Mantova are assessed. A laboratory scale plant was used in order to evaluate the biogas and the methane produced by the anaerobic digestion (AD) of fresh grape marc and to evaluate the role of seeds in the production of methane. The results indicate there have get yields of up to 110 Nm3/t sv of methane, with a much faster production rate than with other bio-masses. The inclusion of grape seeds has a positive effect on the production of biogas and methane. With crushed grape marc a higher percentage of CH4 could be reach than to the other tests, suggesting that the grape seeds crushed favours the methanogenesis. Nevertheless the differences between this matrix and that with as such grape marc are not statistically significant.