Assessment of Agricultural Waste Energy Potential for Circular Economy and Biofuel Production
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.61954/2616-7107/2026.10.2-10Keywords:
Agricultural Waste, Agro-Industrial Complex, Biomass, Circular Economy, Energy Potential.Abstract
Background. The transformation of agro-industrial waste into a strategic resource for energy decentralisation is crucial. In view of modern security challenges and the European Green Deal, there is a growing need for agro-industrial enterprises to transition to closed circular bioeconomy cycles, where intellectual capital and digitalisation serve as the basis for innovative progress.
Purpose. The purpose is to provide a comprehensive assessment the potential for biofuel production from waste in the agricultural sector of Ukraine and justify its strategic role in ensuring energy independence, using a model to assess the technical and energy potential of biomass, taking into account environmental and logistical constraints.
Findings. A model of the integrated technical and energy potential of the agro-industrial complex biomass was developed and tested based on ecological and technological screening principles for the period 2022-2025. The methodology considers the agro-ecological qualification (removal of no more than 25–30% of plant residues to preserve humus) and the institutional barrier of large-scale commercialisation (screening of dispersed waste from the private livestock sector), based on which the commercial potential of Ukrainian agro-biomass was determined at the level of 4.63 million tons of oil equivalent (toe) and its regional decomposition was carried out. The involvement of food industry enterprises (sugar and alcohol plants) as logistics hubs for biomethane and digestate production has optimised supply chains and reduced logistics costs by 30–40% compared to the decentralised collection of distributed biomass. Due to the concentration of significant volumes of homogeneous waste at the industrial sites of these enterprises, the maximum methane yield is achieved through co-fermentation, increasing the investment attractiveness of biogas projects and accelerating their payback.
Implications. The effective conversion of agricultural waste into biofuels can significantly reduce the consumption of fossil resources (natural gas and coal) in local heat and power supply systems. The main barriers to the development of circular models are a lack of long-term investment capital and institutional restrictions on the integration of biomethane into the network. The practical significance of the results lies in the development of applied tools for government agencies and businesses to support regional energy development strategies and climate neutrality programs.
References
Awogbemi, O., & Kallon, D. V. V. (2022). Valorization of agricultural wastes for biofuel applications. Heliyon, 8(10), e11117. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e11117
Bioenergy Association of Ukraine. (2025). Biogas yield from 1 ton of substrate. https://ac-group.in.ua
Bondarenko, V., Shevchenko, N., Cherniavskyi, I., Trapaidze, S., Biletska, N., & Rеznіk, N. (2026). Intellectual capital as a driving factor of the digital economy in agricultural enterprises. In Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems (pp. 337–346). Springer Nature Switzerland. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-00329-4_30
Damian, C. S., Devarajan, Y., & Jayabal, R. (2024). A comprehensive review of the resource efficiency and sustainability in biofuel production from industrial and agricultural waste. Journal of Material Cycles and Waste Management, 26, 1264–1276. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10163-024-01918-6
Gontaruk, Y., Kolomiiets, T., Honcharuk, I., & Tokarchuk, D. (2024). Production and use of biogas and biomethane from waste for climate neutrality and development of green economy. Inżynieria Ekologiczna, 25(2), 20–32. https://doi.org/10.12911/22998993/175876
Hontaruk, Y., Furman, I., Bondarenko, V., Riabchyk, A. & Nepochatenko, O. (2024). Production of biogas and digestate at sugar factories as a way of ensuring the energy and food security of Ukraine. Polityka Energetyczna – Energy Policy Journal, 27(2), 195–210. https://doi.org/10.33223/epj/185210
Kaletnik, G., Pryshliak, N. & Tokarchuk, D. (2021). Potential of Production of Energy Crops in Ukraine and their Processing on Solid Biofuels. Ecological Engineering & Environmental Technology, 22(3), 59–70. https://doi.org/10.12912/27197050/135447
Kaletnik, G., Sakhno, A., Pryshliak, N., Lutkovska, S. & Kolomiiets, T. (2025). Economic evaluation of environmental protection activities in the context of sustainable development: the experience of Ukraine. Polityka Energetyczna – Energy Policy Journal, 28(3), 217–236. https://doi.org/10.33223/epj/207022
Kovacs, E., Hoaghia, M.-A., Senila, L., Scurtu, D. A., Varaticeanu, C., Roman, C., & Dumitras, D. E. (2022). Life Cycle Assessment of Biofuels Production Processes in Viticulture in the Context of Circular Economy. Agronomy, 12(6), 1320. https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy12061320
Lohosha, R., Palamarchuk, V. & Krychkovskyi, V. (2023). Economic efficiency of using digestate from biogas plants in Ukraine when growing agricultural crops as a way of achieving the goals of the European Green Deal. Polityka Energetyczna – Energy Policy Journal, 26(2), 161–182. https://doi.org/10.33223/epj/163434
Ministry of Agrarian Policy of Ukraine. (2005). Vidomchi normy tekhnolohichnoho proektuvannia: Skotarski pidpryiemstva (kompleksy, fermy, mali fermy), VNTP-APK-01.05. Kyiv, Ukraine. https://www.lugdpss.gov.ua/images/bezpechnist_veterynariya/Skotarski-pidpryyemstva-VNTP-APK-01.05.pdf.
Pryshliak, N., Tokarchuk, D. & Shevchuk, H. (2021). The socio-economic and environmental importance of developing biofuels: the Ukrainian case on the international arena. Polityka Energetyczna – Energy Policy Journal, 24(1), 133–152. https://doi.org/10.33223/epj/131829
Pysarenko, V., Pronko, L., Pidvalna, O., Lozhachevska, O., Fastovets, N., & Ribeiro Ramos, O. (2024). Marketing management of bioeconomic potential of enterprises and quality of their innovative products in the post-war recovery strategy. Financial and Credit Activity Problems of Theory and Practice, 6(59), 648–664. https://doi.org/10.55643/fcaptp.6.59.2024.4637
Skoutida, S., Malamakis, A., Geroliolios, D., Karkanias, C., Melas, L., Batsioula, M., & Banias, G. F. (2024). The latent potential of agricultural residues in circular economy: Quantifying their production destined for prospective energy generation applications. Bioenergy Research, 18(1), 11. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12155-024-10814-8
Talavyria, M., Furman, I., Alexandrov, D., & Drabovskyi, A. (2025). Assessment of Agricultural Biomass Potential in Sustainable Biofuel Production. Economics Ecology Socium, 9(2), 109–123. https://doi.org/10.61954/2616-7107/2025.9.2-8
The State Statistics Service of Ukraine. (2026). Area, gross harvest and yield of agricultural crops. https://stat.gov.ua/uk/explorer?urn=SSSU%3adf_area_harvests_crop_yield_a
Tokarchuk, D., Pryshliak, N., Shynkovych, A., & Berezyuk, S. (2022). Food security and biofuel production: solving the dilemma on the example of Ukraine. Polityka Energetyczna - Energy Policy Journal, 25(2), 179–196. https://doi.org/10.33223/epj/150496
Toplicean, I.-M., & Datcu, A.-D. (2024). An Overview on Bioeconomy in Agricultural Sector, Biomass Production, Recycling Methods, and Circular Economy Considerations. Agriculture, 14(7), 1143. https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture14071143
Vasileiadou, A. (2024). From Organic Wastes to Bioenergy, Biofuels, and Value-Added Products for Urban Sustainability and Circular Economy: A Review. Urban Science, 8(3), 121. https://doi.org/10.3390/urbansci8030121
Venkatramanan, V., Shah, S., Prasad, S., Singh, A., & Prasad, R. (2021). Assessment of bioenergy generation potential of agricultural crop residues in India. Circular Economy and Sustainability, 1(4), 1335–1348. https://doi.org/10.1007/s43615-021-00072-7
Yrjälä, K., Ramakrishnan, M., & Salo, E. (2022). Agricultural waste streams as resource in circular economy for biochar production towards carbon neutrality. Current Opinion in Environmental Science & Health, 26, 100339. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.coesh.2022.100339
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Economics Ecology Socium
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
If the article is accepted for publication in the journal «Economics. Ecology. Socium» the author must sign an agreementon transfer of copyright. The agreement is sent to the postal (original) or e-mail address (scanned copy) of the journal editions.
