Energetic efficiency analysis of the agricultural biogas plant in 250 kWe experimental installation

European direction of energy development has been already set few years ago. Proper waste management is not just a fashion trend of the wealthy European countries - it has become a legal requirement. Processing of the biowaste into the biogas is one of the most effective technologies providing to obtain a green energy and improvement of the environment. Construction of small and cheap agricultural biogas plants, like in case of Poznan University of Life Sciences (PULS) experimental station Przybroda, is one of the best directions of dissemination of this biowaste valorization technology. The aim of this paper was to investigate the biogas efficiency of the substrates available in PULS experimental farm Przybroda (cattle manure, maize silage). The results have shown that the most energetic valuable substrate is maize silage with cumulative biogas yield 218.4 m(3)/Mg FM (almost 3 times more than cattle manure). With yearly substrate availability on the Przybroda farm, total amount of biomethane produced is 521,440 m(3) from maize silage and 23,615 m(3) from cattle manure. It allows to obtain 2212.38 MWh/year of electric energy as well as 2428.22 MWh/year thermal energy production. The calculated electric energy power was 0.270 MW. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.