Potential hazards posed by biogas plants

One effective method of clean energy generation is to use biogas. The biogas production technologies are now highly developed, especially at the level of local biogas plants. Unfortunately, it has been impossible to avoid in-service fatal accidents. Therefore, the design and construction of new technological installations intended for biogas large-scale production have to take account of the plant safe operation. In the first place, this applies to the course of industrial processes and to potential failures that may occur in them due to the flammability and toxicity of biogas constituents. This paper is focused on the hazards that biogas poses to human health and life. It presents the hazard zones arising due to possible scenarios following a release of biogas from a biogas plant. Probit functions and numerical modelling of the spread of thermal radiation due to a fire and of the toxic cloud arising therefrom are used to calculate the probability of serious injury to health and a loss of life depending on the distance from the gas release site. It is estimated that for a high-pressure tank containing 3000 m3 of biogas under the pressure of 10 MPa the life-threatening zone due to a potential fire of released gas has the range of about 30 m. There is about 10 m hazard zone related to the gas explosion, and the zone with the risk of poisoning due to the gas cloud toxic concentration has the range of about 20 m from the failure site. [Display omitted] •The consequences of a biogas plant failure were identified.•Critical areas around biogas plant equipment were estimated.•The impact of biogas parameters on potential hazards was investigated.