Allocation and introduction of biomass plants considering geographic distribution of livestock manure

Since the law for concerning the appropriate treatment and promotion of utilization of livestock manure has come into effect in 2004 in Japan, the way of disposal of the manure causes serious waste management problem in rural areas. Production of biogas from the manure by anaerobic digestion is one of the promised technologies to reduce the amount of environmental effect, and to generate heat and electricity. Recently biogas power plants have been installed in rural areas, however, studies on the optimal allocation considering geographic distribution of livestock manure have hardly been investigated. The paper focuses on the optimal allocation of centralized biogas power plants and composting plants considering the distribution of the animal livestock at lower costs, introducing an optimization model and geographical information system. The study also analyzes the effect of the subsidy rate for construction cost on the optimal location of biogas power plants and composting plants.