Siting analysis of farm-based centralized anaerobic digester systems for distributed generation using GIS

There is growing interest in installing anaerobic digesters (ADs) on farms to use animal wastes as a biomass resource for both economic value and environmental benefit. This potential expansion prompts the need for land suitability assessment. In this paper, a GIS model is proposed for land-suitability assessment of potential energy systems featuring an AD coupled with an energy generator. A variety of environmental and social constraints, as well as economic factors are integrated in the model to help determine the optimal sites for installing such systems. The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method is employed to estimate the factors’ weights in order to establish their relative importance in site selection. The model is then applied to Tompkins County, New York as a case study for demonstration. A siting suitability map was produced to identify those areas that are most suitable for distributed bio-energy systems using dairy manure. The results showed that this GIS-based model, by integrating both spatial data and non-spatial information, was capable of providing a broad-scale and multidimensional view on the potential bio-energy systems development in the area of study to account for environmental and social constraints as well as economic factors. The model can be modified for evaluating other biomass resources.