University of Vaasa - Vaasan yliopisto

Table 1. Environmental, social cultural and economic impacts of biogases.
Environmental
impacts
of biogases
+ Nature-friendly:
uses existing sites,
no unspoilt nature
is conquered.
+ Clean: pollutes
only at the beginning
of life cycle.
+ Intelligent way
of disposing waste
- Requires space,
infrastructure and
heavy machinery.
- Does not create
enough energy to
replace all other
forms of biofuels.
-Volatile.
Social
impacts
of biogases
+ Creates jobs.
+ Implementation
is fast.
+ Generally
accepted as a way
to create energy.
- Loss of jobs in
areas in replaces.
- Requires a
change of
ideology.
Cultural
impacts
of biogases
+ Easy to take into
use in
industrialized
countries.
- Requires a great
deal of education
in developing
countries.
- Adoption
requires time.
-Requires
education of the
dangers of
methane.
Economic
impacts
of biogases
+ Uses
existing
technology.
+ Cheap to
use.
+ Converting
existing
landfills into
energy centres
- Start-up
phase is
expensive.
- Requires big
investments
from
bioenergy
compa-nies,
car industry
and
governments.
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Biogases are environmentally sustainable because they are nature-friendly and clean
compared to fossil fuels. Biogas plants are built on existing sites, such as landfill
sites and sewage plants, and consequently, they do not conquer any sites of unspoilt
nature. Biogases pollute only at the beginning of their life cycle. However, to use
biogases as an energy source requires a lot of space, an infrastructure and heavy
machinery to be able to produce the product, which are the reasons for biogases not
being so common. On the other hand, biogas generation is an intelligent way of
disposing waste. Biogases improve waste management and have given biogas-fuelled
engines a chance to improve waste management while maximizing the use of an
economical energy supply. However, biogases are still volatile.
When considering the social sustainability of biogases, they create jobs in industrial
working environments. Self-evidently, those areas biogases replace will suffer from
job losses. As people are used to the conventional ways of refining fossil minerals
into energy, widespread biogas utilization will need change of ideology. However,
biogas production has already become a generally accepted way of creating energy.
Since its implementation is fast it has good prospects.
From the cultural sustainability point of view, the status of biogases is also very
good since biogases are well known amongst people and they can easily be adapted
to any culture. In industrialized countries biogases are easy to take into use, but in
developing countries a great deal of education and training are needed for biogas
production. Consequently, starting up biogas production in different cultures requires