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BIOMASSE LEGNOSE Microfiliere di autoconsumo
Abstract
Nell'ambito delle iniziative nazionali e comuniatrie di lotta ai cambiamenti climatici, le foreste e le bioenergie di origine legnosa assumono un ruolo fondamentale, consolidato dalla storia dell’uomo e rinnovato nell’efficienza dell’innovazione tecnologica. In Italia, come in Europa e nel resto del mondo, il contributo delle foreste alla varietà di fonti globali di energia rinnovabile non rappresenta solamente un primato statistico (40% delle fonti rinnovabili, il 10% delle fonti globali). Il contributo delle biomasse legnose di origine forestale o da colture dedicate, se correttamente pianificato e dimensionato, ha un indubbio impatto immediato sul clima e può rappresentare a livello locale un volano per uno sviluppo socioeconomico sostenibile e uno
strumento attivo non solo nella mitigazione e adattamento al cambiamento climatico ma soprattutto nella tutela e governo del territorio.
... I cambiamenti climatici e socioeconomici globali spingono la ricerca a sostenere la definizione e attuazione di efficaci strategie di mitigazione e adattamento per le colture e gli ecosistemi e per l'intensificazione sostenibile dei processi produttivi dei sistemi agrari e forestali. In questo contesto si rileva che in Italia le biomasse e il biogas sono le fonti energetiche rinnovabili che hanno dimostrato il maggiore potenziale di crescita in questi ultimi anni (Romano & Plutino 2018). L'Associazione Italiana delle Società Scientifiche Agrarie (AISSA) ha promosso, nell'ambito del XV Congresso Nazionale tenutosi a Bolzano nel febbraio 2018, una riflessione su potenzialità e limiti per l'intensificazione sostenibile dei sistemi agricoli e forestali ai fini della produzione di bioenergie (biomasse, biogas, biodiesel). ...
... Il concetto di sostenibilità racchiude in sé molteplici aspetti, principalmente ambientali, economici, sociali e istituzionali, tra loro correlati (Romano & Plutino 2018). Esistono ancora molti margini nel processo di ottimizzazione dell'efficienza e della sostenibilità delle filiere bioenergetiche: la valutazione d'insieme dei bilanci energetici e ambientali, sia a livello globale che locale, è uno dei presupposti. ...
... La pianificazione e il dimensionamento degli impianti rispetto alle reali capacità di approvvigionamento locale e alle necessità energetiche locali costituiscono uno dei principali passi per la realizzazione di filiere efficienti e sostenibili (Romano & Plutino 2018). Per quanto attiene le biomasse di origine forestale (bosco e arboricoltura), l'impiego a fini energetici deve comunque fare salvo il principio dell'utilizzo a cascata del legno, prevedendo l'uso a scopo energetico solo a fine ciclo di utilizzo, cioè quando non è più possibile un utilizzo da parte del settore industriale e manifatturiero (principio applicato, ad esempio, con l'Accordo interregionale per il prelievo legnoso e la filiera legno sottoscritto a Verona il 26/02/2016). ...
Global changes push to set up strategies able to mitigate and adapt
agricultural and forest crops to environmental variability, and the
sustainable intensification of production processes under agricultural
and forestry systems is one of the approaches mainly supported.
In Italy biomass and biogas are the renewable energy sources that
have shown the greatest potential for growth in recent years. In
this context, during the XV National Congress held in Bolzano in
February 2018, the Italian Association of Agricultural Scientific
Societies has promoted an analysis about potential and limits of the
sustainable intensification of agricultural and forestry systems for
bioenergy production. This document reports the outcome, in the
form of a commented discussion on the main evidences and proposals from technical-scientific and operational points of view.
... Based on the inherent limitations of the study, future research is increasingly required to focus on improvements of secondary data (both statistical and cartographic) for a more precise, spatially-explicit estimation of biofuel industry potential and land-use conflicts, considering also the economic opportunities derived from second-generation bioenergy crops [17,64]. Within such strategies, the positive impact in terms of GHG emission reduction should be better clarified in light of integrated risk mitigation strategies [89]. ...
The European Union aims to provide as much as one quarter of its transportation fuels via biofuels derived from renewable sources by 2030. To put this into perspective, the Italian government has recently established an ambitious goal to support the wider uptake of advanced second-generation biofuels, including cellulosic biofuels for the transportation sector. A sustainable way forward is to grow perennial biomass crops on marginal lands, however the nationwide availability of those lands for lignocellulosic feedstock production remains uncertain. We identify and evaluate the potential of marginal lands in Italy to produce sizeable amounts of biomass for sustainable cellulosic biofuel production while limiting land use conflicts and negative ecological impacts. We applied spatial multi-criteria decision analysis techniques in geographic information systems to ultimately generate spatially-explicit national land suitability and availability maps at a fine resolution (250-m). We selected a broad range of leading cellulosic biomass crops that includes poplar (Populus × canadensis Moench), willow (Salix alba Linnaeus), black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia Linnaeus), giant reed (Arundo donax Linnaeus), and vetiver grass (Chrysopogon zizanioides Linnaeus). Based on marginality criteria, our results suggest that such biomass plantations of perennial grasses and short rotation trees may produce 3.1–27.4 billion liters of cellulosic ethanol per year from 462,265−2,811,064 million hectares of available marginal lands. This estimated production may fulfill 7.8–69.1% of Italy's current liquid transportation fuel consumption, constrained by the requirement that each modelled location be within 70 kilometers of a potential cellulosic biorefinery. Collectively, this study provides the cornerstone of efforts to rationally meet Italy's need for renewable fuels in a sustainable low-carbon economy future.
... Questi numeri, seppur provenienti da fonti differenti, mettono in luce l'importanza strategica delle biomasse legnose come fonte di energia rinnovabile al fine di conseguire gli obiettivi del 2030 previsti dalla Strategia Energetica Nazionale. Inoltre, è presumibile aspettarsi un'ulteriore crescita dell'offerta di biomasse legnose, al fine di soddisfare la crescente domanda interna, in particolare attraverso la valorizzazione dei residui forestali derivanti dai diradamenti e dai tagli di utilizzazione finale e dei residui agricoli derivanti dalla potatura dei frutteti (Nikodinoska et al. 2018). Viceversa, è difficilmente ipotizzabile un ulteriore incremento delle colture dedicate a ciclo breve (Short Rotation Forestry) che hanno raggiunto una discreta diffusione alla fine del secolo scorso grazie ai finanziamenti legati ai Piani di Sviluppo Rurale (PSR -Facciotto 2012). ...
In the last decades, the energy policy of European Union (EU) has fostered the use of biomass from forests and outside forests for energy purposes. Firstly, the Green Paper on renewable energies of the European Commission, then, the Directive 2009/28/EC on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources, the objectives of reducing the greenhouses gases (GHG) emissions and increasing the share of final consumption covered by renewable sources have been established. In this context, the present study investigated the flow of wood residues for energy use in the Trentino province – involving 82 wood processing enterprises (74% of total enterprises) and 22 biomass energy plants (85% of total biomass energy plants) – and quality of raw material used. The results show that in the Trentino province 100% of wood residues produced by wood processing enterprises are sold in the market (90.6%) or re-used within the enterprise (9.4%). Concerning the biomass sold on the market, 46% of wood biomass is marketed within the Trentino province, while 54% is marketed outside the province (Bolzano province, Veneto and Lombardy region). The biomass energy plants mainly use woodchips from forest and sawmills (86%), while sawdust and bark cover the remaining 10% and 4%, respectively. The biomass energy plants sample involved in the survey buys mainly raw material from traders (42.5%) followed by wood processing enterprises (34.3%) and forest enterprises (23.2%). Regarding the quality of wood biomass, only 54.5% of biomass energy plants sample checks the water content, while 41% buy certified woodchips. The results of this study highlight that forest-wood chain in the Trentino province is efficient in re-using wood residues produced in accordance with the principles of the circular bioeconomy, while there are still margins for improvement about the controls of the quality of raw materials used and to enhance of wood products of high added value (bio-textiles, bio-plastics).
... In addition, the use of the Geographic Information System (GIS) approach could refine and adapt the proximity indicator to reflect the Italian regional differences in bioenergy production. Mapping biomass supply chains can be a good decision support tool also for land use planning as it better represents the amount and direction of the wood biomass flow used for energy production (Romano and Plutino, 2018). ...
Biomass is an important energy feedstock and an alternative to fossil fuel. The development of biomass-based supply chains and energy conversion plants has to be calibrated to reflect local sustainability criteria. The aim of this study is to assess the environmental, economic, and social sustainability of a biomass-based district heating plant (DHP) and a combined heat and power plant (CHP) in Italy. The sustainability assessment was developed using three criteria: proximity between biomass and the energy producer and consumer; value added, employment, and impact of biomass supply chains; and environmental impacts. For each criterion, a set of sustainability metrics was developed and tested in two case studies in Northern Italy (Sarentino DHP and Cavalese CHP). The results suggested that the DHP and CHP (1) were supplied with local biomass residues located at distances of 11 km and 20 km, respectively; (2) provided energy to 55% and 83% of the total local population, respectively; (3) generated a value added of approximately €2 million and €1 million, created 4 and 8 local green jobs, and dedicated 52% and 64% of their external costs to the local biomass supply chain (wood production, transformation, and transport), respectively; and (4) contributed to the impact category of global warming potential with 7.6 gCO2eq./MJ (compared to 70–90 gCO2eq./MJ from fossil-fueled DHP) and 62 gCO2eq./MJeu (compared to 100–300 gCO2eq./MJeu from fossil-fueled CHP), respectively.
The Common International Classification of Ecosystem Services (CICES) is widely used for mapping, ecosystem assessment, and natural capital ecosystem accounting. On the basis of the experience gained in using it since the first version was published in 2013, it has been updated for version 5.1. This policy brief summarises what has been done and how the classification can be used.
Given the growing role of wood biomass as a strategic resource in the European and national renewable energy policies, the paper provides two new estimations of the internal consumption and supply levels, aiming at discussing the real role of this resource in the national energy mix and the implications of this market in terms of forest policies. The first estimation focuses on household consumption and expenditure based on the ISTAT “Survey on consumption by families”, and the second analyzes how the wood biomass supply is structured and organized; this second estimation has been carried out with an expert panel consultation based on a Delphi-based approach. These two estimations are then compared and discussed with reference to the data and information provided by official sources and other publically-available studies and surveys conducted in recent years. The results provide evidence that wood biomass is the first source of renewable energy in Italy and that official data only partially quantify the consumption levels in the residential sector and domestic supply rates. The paper highlights the need for a new approach in data collection on this fast-growing market; these data are essential for a more effective implementation of the renewable energy policy and other relevant forest-related policies such as those on climate and wood mobilization.
In Basilicata region there is a considerable amount of unused wood as well as the capacity to use it as feedstock for the production of bioenergy. Thus, the supply of renewable energy could be increased through greater utilization of forest biomass. However, for a better planning of the production and processing chain, the energy and forestry sectors require better estimates of the availability of unused roundwood and residues. The aim of the research was the development of a model for the spatial evaluation of biomass quantities obtainable from forestland. The results obtained point out a) significant amounts of biomass distributed on most of the territory; b) good opportunities related to white certificate trading and c) potential of business creation, entrepreneurship and local employment.
Agricultural biomass supply chain consisting of multiple harvesting, storage, pre-processing, and transport operations. This network operates in space and time coordinates and produces empirical data used for many purposes, including wood-flow planning, harvesting cost calculation and work rate setting. The aim of this study was to explore and propose the use of a multivariate approach, namely, the Partial Least Squares (PLS) multivariate regression approach and compare its performance with the commonly used Ordinary Linear Regression (OLS). In particular, the study aimed at comparing the main statistical significance of indicators attributed to models calculated with OLS and PLS regressions from the same original datasets, for the purpose of quantifying the eventual improvement, obtained with the new techniques. The dataset is composed by a series of measurements (harvesting distance, load carried, plantation production, numbers of plants harvested, and tractor engine power) conducted in a harvesting yard of a poplar plantation, to forecast the demanded working times. The technical analysis was accompanied by economic scenarios, based on three hypothetical harvesting yards. The results indicated that the PLS innovative approach is better performing; model error indicators are 5%-6% lower than those estimated with the OLS method. From an economic point of view the harvesting cost per ton ranges among 8.69-14.59 € t-1, 12.10-16.56 € t-1 and 13.18-16.31 € t-1 referring to the different load capacity of the trailers, using the PLS model. Based on these results the differences between PLS and OLS varied up to 40 € ha-1. PLS modeling and more in general the advanced multivariate approach, are getting increasingly popular, because they are very robust and are particularly suitable for modeling complex systems.
