Pedosphere Research, vol. 5, 2025, no. 2: 78–98
Original paper
COMPREHENSIVE MAP OF PRODUCTION POTENTIAL FOR BIOGAS AND BIO-METHANE PRODUCTION
Pavol Bezák, Dominik Abrahám, Martin Polovka
National Agricultural and Food Centre – Soil Science and Conservation Department Bratislava,
Slovak Republic
Corresponding author: Ing. Pavol Bezák, National Agricultural and Food Centre, Soil Science and Conservation Department, Priemyselná 4, 821 08 Bratislava, Slovakia, e-mail: pavol.bezak@nppc.sk, ORCID ID: 0000-0002-0637-2740
Citation: Bezák, P., Abrahám, D., Polovka, M. (2025). Comprehensive map of potential for biogas and bio-methane production. Pedosphere Research, vol. 5: 78 – 98. NPPC – VÚPOP 2025, ISSN 2729-8728. https://doi.org/10.64122/j.pedosres.2025.05.06
Abstract
The research is part of the bioeconomy, which uses renewable natural capital and biological resources that arise primarily in rural areas and thus largely depends on primary producers of agricultural and forest products, but on the other hand, largely also on anthropogenic waste products. The starting sources were data obtained from the Statistical Office, supplemented by data from the Central Control and Testing Institute in Agriculture, (maize for silage), the Ministry of the Environment of the Slovak Republic (waste) and the Water Research Institute (sludge). The conversion coefficients for biomethane production were obtained in cooperation with the Biogas Association and the Slovak Biomethane Association. They were based on several components: area of maize for silage, post-harvest residues, livestock excrement, biodegradable municipal waste including waste from production and trade, and sludge from municipal and wastewater treatment. The resulting data were processed at the district level, which enabled their connection to the spatial data of administrative borders. Three geospatial layers were created for the production: biomass, biogas and biomethane. These were stored in the database under the names: districts_biomass, districts_biogly, districts_biometan. The outputs are focused to the calculation of the potential of current production, its realization, the potential of the basic projection into the future and its realization. The map of the potential of biomass production – biogas and biomethane for the territory of Slovakia has a selected legend that will allow visually and easily to determine the shares of individual categories of biomass produced at the district level and the share of individual districts in the total amount. The map application should enable user-friendly display of spatial data on various devices (PC, tablet, mobile).
Keywords: biogas, biomethane, biodegradable municipal waste, biomass production potential map, bioeconomy