Assessment of the Biogas Production Potential within the Slovak Spirits Industry

Abstract The Slovak spirits industry has a stable position within the alcoholic beverages industry in the Slovak Republic. However, its production process causes significant environmental stress on nature. The industry can use roughly only 10% of the raw materials. This means a significant amount of waste is produced during the distillation process. We investigated the biogas production potential within the Slovak distilleries producing spirits for final consumption when we compared the production of spirits between the years 2010 and 2019. Biogas production potential is calculated as an ideal situation when all spent wash from spirits producing distilleries is used for biogas production. The potential energy gain is also calculated in kWh based on the already available research in the field of biogas production. We conducted that the total biogas potential of the Slovak spirits industry could reach 15,886,053 kWh in terms of electricity and 22,946,177 kWh in terms of heat energy if we calculate energy potential according to the spirits production in the year 2019. The total combined energy potential generated during the reuse of waste from distilleries could reach 38,832,230 kWh. The biogas production in these facilities has also a positive side effect. If distilleries use the heat energy for the distillation process, the amount of greenhouse emissions will also be declining.