5. Conclusions and recommendations
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) was conducted to compare different biogas systems to establish the basis for further improvement of environmental and public health impacts, hence, enhance environmental
sustainability of biogas production and utilization pathways. Impacts of realistic case scenarios were analyzed by considering potential variations in; (i) feedstock type, (ii) biogas utilization options, and (iii) digestate processing and handling unit processes. The observed range of variations on the potential reduction of environmental impacts (established by LCA) and enhancement of energy conversion efficiency (established by energy balance) indicated a high inherent optimization potential based on judicious selection of biogas production and utilization pathways.