Biogas is increasingly positioned at the center of a broader transition toward energy independence, where agriculture plays a far more strategic role than in the past.
Far from being only a consumer of energy, the agricultural sector can become a producer, transforming organic byproducts such as manure, crop residues, and food waste into renewable energy through anaerobic digestion. In doing so, farms effectively become distributed energy hubs within a wider circular system.
Improving biogas performance in anaerobic digestion systems is critical to realizing this opportunity. This shift is significant in the context of today’s energy landscape. The ongoing energy crisis, driven by volatile fossil fuel prices, geopolitical instability, and pressure on centralized infrastructure, has highlighted the need for more resilient and localized energy systems.
Agriculture sits at the heart of this opportunity: it is geographically distributed, continuously generates biomass, and can convert locally available waste streams into usable power and heat. This makes it a key enabler of decentralized energy production and a practical contributor to energy security.
At the same time, this model strengthens sustainability outcomes. By capturing methane that would otherwise be released from organic waste, and by replacing fossil-based energy sources, anaerobic digestion helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The resulting digestate also returns valuable nutrients to the soil, supporting soil health and reducing dependence on synthetic fertilizers. In this way, energy production and agricultural productivity become mutually reinforcing, rather than competing, objectives.
Yet, for many operators, the reality of running a digester does not always match its theoretical promise. Variability in feedstocks, biological sensitivity, and day-to-day operational complexity mean that consistent biogas performance can be difficult to achieve.
Day-to-day operations are shaped by a series of challenges:
- Feedstocks vary in quality and composition
- Systems are complex to manage
- Maintaining stable operating conditions can be difficult
- Process imbalances can disrupt biogas performance
- Operational risks and variability are complex to consistently control
As a result, a gap between theoretical potential and realized potential emerges.
Why biogas performance gaps occur in anaerobic digestion
The performance of an anaerobic digester is shaped by a complex and dynamic biological process; outcomes are not fixed or always predictable. Operators must manage a diverse mix of feedstocks, from slurry and crop residues to food waste.
Each feedstock varies in dry matter content, energy potential, nutrient balance, and rate of degradation. These differences influence how quickly material breaks down, how much biogas is produced, and the stability of the process overall.
At the same time, maintaining optimal conditions within the digester is critical. Anaerobic digestion relies on a living community of microorganisms that work together to break down organic material and convert it into biogas. For this process to run smoothly, conditions such as temperature, pH, and nutrient balance must remain within a relatively narrow range.
When these conditions shift, often due to changes in feedstock composition or feeding rates, the biological process can slow down or become unstable, leading to fluctuations in gas output and overall performance. Keeping the system balanced is therefore essential, but difficult to achieve consistently in real-world settings.
As a result, many plants operate below their theoretical biogas potential. This gap between biological potential and operational reality is one of the biggest barriers preventing the anaerobic digestion sector from achieving consistent, scalable performance.
How to improve biogas performance in anaerobic digesters
Understanding the limitations of the system is only part of the solution. Real progress comes from applying practical tools that can deliver consistent results within the day-to-day realities of an on-farm anaerobic digestion operation. Revelex™ was developed specifically to meet that challenge, taking a whole-system approach that recognizes the interdependence of feedstocks, biology, and operational management.
Revelex is designed to unlock the potential of every substrate, creating energy, efficiency, and value from resources that would otherwise go to waste. By improving how different feedstocks are utilized and by supporting a more balanced biological process, Revelex helps maintain stable conditions within the digester, enabling more consistent, predictable performance.
Real-world results: Improving biogas performance on-farm
The real test of any solution is not how it performs under controlled conditions, but how it delivers day to day. This challenge is illustrated in the case of one Northern Ireland farm.
Like many anaerobic digestion operations, the one on James Martin’s farm was managing a mix of feedstocks, including slurry, silage, and other organic materials, each varying in composition and quality over time. The system was largely slurry-dominant, requiring the addition of crop-based material to maintain output, which increased both input costs and pressure on land use.
Optimizing the digester was not straightforward; understanding how different substrates interacted, how much to feed, and how to manage the balance within the system required ongoing monitoring and adjustment. Like many operators, there was also limited visibility into what was happening inside the digester itself, making it difficult to consistently achieve optimal performance.
To address this, the EU Applications Laboratory at Alltech’s European headquarters in Dunboyne, Co. Meath, Ireland, established and managed a trial program. This began with nearly 12 months of baselining and process analysis to build a detailed understanding of the system before any intervention took place. Using biochemical methane potential (BMP) analysis, the initial focus was to demonstrate proof of concept under controlled conditions before expanding the approach into real-world anaerobic digestion plant applications.
Following the introduction of Revelex, the focus shifted from reacting to problems to proactively managing system performance. By supporting the biological processes within the digester, the operation began to see improvements not just in output, but in how reliably the system performed overall. Previously, performance had depended on constant adjustment and input, with limited certainty around outcomes.
“We saw very quickly we were able to reduce the amount of substrate going into the digester,” says Martin. “Alltech have proved themselves, they’ve done the tests and made no claims they couldn’t stand over.”
Crucially, the upshift in performance and output was not defined by a single metric. Instead, the benefits were seen across the system:
- A more stable digestion process, with fewer fluctuations
- Greater tolerance to variability in feedstocks
- Improved consistency in performance over time
- Increased confidence in day-to-day operation
- A clearer ROI, driven by improved efficiency and reduced input
For the farm, this translated into something more tangible than incremental gains – it meant being confident in the system’s performance. Decisions could be made with greater certainty, and the digester became a more dependable pillar.
Looking to the future of biogas
This on-farm experience in Northern Ireland highlights a broader shift in how biogas systems need to be evaluated. Success is not defined by achieving maximum output under ideal conditions, but by delivering consistent, reliable performance in real-world settings where variability is the norm. The future of biogas will depend on how well this can be delivered in real farm conditions. As biogas scales, consistency will not just be an advantage, it will be a requirement.
“The role of biogas on-farm is only going to grow, but it won’t be enough to simply produce energy,” notes Patrick Ward, Europe and Asia-Pacific applications manager at Alltech.
“Systems will need to become more efficient, more consistent and easier to manage day-to-day as the sector continues to evolve. At Alltech, we are committed to advancing innovation in this space through research, applied science and practical on-farm solutions that support more sustainable and climate-smart farming systems.”
Author: Elisa Boschi, global head of marketing, resource efficiency at Alltech
