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Tobacco is traditionally used for cigarettes and cigars manufacturing and after the drying process a great quantity of dry tobacco stalks is treated as waste. In this framework, the scope of the paper is to examine the use of tobacco stems to feed a biomass boiler after a chipping process. The study is focused on southern Italy area thus, firstly, the assessment of tobacco availability in Italy and Campania region has been determined. Then, Burley tobacco stalks sampled out in an air-curing factory of south Italy crop have been characterized according to ASTM D5142 and ASTM D5373 standards. Thereby, biomass and natural gas fuelled boilers have been compared through an energy, environmental and economic analysis on simulative basis. Both systems satisfy the thermal energy demands of a multi-purpose condominium located in a cold Italian climatic zone near the factory. The results have demonstrated that boiler fed by tobacco chips ensures environmental and economic advantages compared to traditional system. In particular, it guarantees a reduction of CO 2 emissions up to 16.59 tCO 2 in one of investigated scenarios and a simple payback period and a net present value of about 5.6 years and 17,168 € (without economic support), respectively. • Tobacco stalks availability in Italy and Campania region is assessed. • Tobacco stems proximate and ultimate analyses show results similar to woody biomasses. • Boiler fed by tobacco chips and natural gas fuelled one are modelled and simulated. • A techno-economic and environmental performance comparison is implemented. • The energy, environmental and economic results reward plant fed tobacco by chips. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]