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Castor is a candidate crop that grows in marginal lands in the Mediterranean area. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the economic and environmental impacts under the Mediterranean climate and farming conditions by examining two alternative scenarios: a castor crop grown on a low-inputs field vs. a crop grown in a high-inputs one. The environmental impacts were estimated by following a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology based on GHG emissions; while the economic feasibility of the castor crop production was assessed by calculating the gross margin, which is referred to the difference between revenues and the variable costs due to the agricultural phases. In addition, the ratio between gross margin and GWP (Global Warming Potential) emissions was applied to calculate the economic performance (gross margin) per unit of environmental burden. Findings showed that the castor oil produced by high inputs resulted in a more sustainable scenario due to its higher yield than low-inputs ones. Moreover, from an economic point of view, by switching the field management from low inputs to high ones, the Gross Margin increased by about 73%. Finally, the high-inputs scenario showed the best ratio between economic performance and GHG emitted into the atmosphere., Proceedings of the 30th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 9-12 May 2022, Online, pp. 377-382

European Union is encouraging renewable energy production from biomass. Forestry sector is one of the major producers of biomass and this is particularly true for riparian forests. Such stands indeed show high biomass yield, even if the attainable assortments have low economic value, on the other hand, interventions are needed to allow for the hydrogeological safety of the area. Considering this there is a strong need to optimize forest operation in such stands, ensuring sustainable forest operation for what concerning all the three pillars of sustainability. Proper planning of forest utilization is crucial to ensure sustainable forest operation and precision forest harvesting approach, through technologies such GIS, can be a powerful instrument to reach this aim. The present study was set up in Lazio Region in Italy. The aim was to perform a preliminary planning of the forest intervention in the riparian stands comparing two different extraction systems, i.e. cable skidder and forwarder with particular reference to the occurred impacts to forest soil. Starting from the Digital Terrain Model at 10 m resolution of the area and applying the RDBM method developed and improved by the same research group, the skid trails/strip roads network needed for intervention was designed in a semi-automatic way and the results of the two simulations (one for each extraction system) were compared in terms of soil impacts. Cable skidder showed to be the most appropriate system in this kind of interventions, where working productivity is important but even more attention has to be put to limit the impacts to soil considering the high ecological and hydrogeological value of these stands. The lower working distance of forwarder indeed led to a viability density needed for the intervention of 611 m/ha while only 172 m/ha were sufficient for allowing extraction via cable skidder., Proceedings of the 30th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 9-12 May 2022, Online, pp. 39-41

This work has been developed under the AGROinLOG Project, “Demonstration of innovative integrated biomass logistics centres for the Agro-industry sector in Europe”. An Integrated Biomass Logistics Center (IBLC), is based on the introduction of new production chains into existing agro-industries by using new biomass feedstock. The AGROinLOG Project has dedicated great attention to investigate the potential of cereal chaff as a valuable resource.Chaff is the fine fraction of the thrashing residues, not usually collected. Chaff is made up of glumes, seed husks, rachis and the tinner part of the cereal stems, whole and cracked kernels, as well as weed seeds.Currently there are several mechanical solutions available on the market for chaff recovery, and others are still at prototype stage, but theyare not so common and very often unknown to the farmers.So far, the literature reportsfew cases of chaff collection with the specific purpose of weed seeds removal, but it still lacks specificexperiments on these machinesintentionally used for biomass collection.For this reason, during the Project AGROinLOG a series of large field tests were performed using an independent scientific approach with different kind of chaff harvesting technologiesin France, Sweden and Italy from 2017 to 2019.The present study collects the results of these activities with the aim to fill that gap and provide deeper understanding in the possibility to enhance the current cereal harvesting method, in order to improve the quantity of biomass collected by including the chaff., Proceedings of the 29th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 26-29 April 2021, Online, pp. 62-68

Wheat is one of the most widespread crops worldwide because of its high yield and importance for food, chemical purposes and livestock feed. Some of the residues of this crops (wheat chaff) remain in the field after grain harvesting. In Europe, the only wheat chaff could provide an annual potential biomass of 54.8 Mt. Collecting such a biomass could be of interest for bioenergy production and could increase farmers’ income. However, progress in harvest technology play a key role in order to turn untapped by-products into valuable feedstock. The research represents a study of the performance and the quality of the work of an innovative system (Harcob), developed for maize cob collection, during wheat chaff harvesting. Results highlighted that it was possible to harvest 0.67 t ha-1 of chaff, without affecting the harvesting performance of the combine. The Harcob system resulted suitable to harvest such different and high potential crop by-products and may represents a solution for farmers investing in the bioenergy production chain., Proceedings of the 29th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 26-29 April 2021, Online, pp. 199-202

The growing demand for renewable substitute for oil-derived products is a valid opportunity for farmers who cultivate oilseed species. Castor bean oil is gaining interest during the last decades not only for cosmetics purposes but also as source of biofuel or raw material for the production of lubricants and oleo-chemical products. In order to produce castor oil, the mechanical harvesting is a problem that has to be addressed. Conventional combine harvesters fail to process the considerable amount of biomass produced by castor plant, while geneticists are involved in the selection of dwarf hybrids, further investigation on the castor chain supply is fundamental for developing a reliable mechanical harvesting system. The goal of the study is to assess the possibility to extend the use of conventional machinery, currently applied for cereal crops, to the harvest of castor beans in new selected cultivars., Proceedings of the 29th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 26-29 April 2021, Online, pp. 366-369

Short and medium rotation coppice (SRC and MRC) have been identified as an interesting solid biomass resource at global level. The production of large amount of biomass in limited time is no longer complicated thanks to modern machine technology, but the concentrated availability of wood fuel often does not go in line with the demand for energy in cases where this demand is high and steady all along the year. This lack of alinement implies the need to find storage solutions to buffer fluctuations in supply and demand. The goal of this study was to understand the storage performance of 5 years old Eucalyptus whole trees, with and without branches, obtained from an MRC plantation located in central Italy (42°10’19’’N latitude, 12°62’66’’E longitude). Fuel quality parameters were evaluated periodically during a 8 months period from March to September 2018, being the first attempt to store Eucalyptus in this area., Proceedings of the 29th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 26-29 April 2021, Online, pp. 203-206

Dedicated energy crops can play a key role in providing substantial amounts of lignocellulosic feedstocks equired for the second-generation biofuel production chain as well as heat and electricity production (JRC EC, 2011). Giant reed (Arundo donax L.) has already been recognized as a high yielding, stress tolerant crop suited to marginal lands and low-input cultivation, which could be encompassed in land-saving and environmentally sound bioenergy supply chains. For instance, giant reed has been proposed for bioethanol, biogas, and thermochemical conversion. Although considered for bioenergy throughout the world, this crop has received particular attention in the Mediterranean, where promising yields have been achieved in mid- and long-term field trials., Proceedings of the 29th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 26-29 April 2021, Online, pp. 306-309

A global human–robot interface that meets the needs of Technical Explosive Ordnance Disposal Specialists (TEDAX) for the manipulation of a robotic arm is of utmost importance to make the task of handling explosives safer, more intuitive and also provide high usability and efficiency. This paper aims to evaluate the performance of a multimodal system for a robotic arm that is based on Natural User Interface (NUI) and Graphical User Interface (GUI). The mentioned interfaces are compared to determine the best configuration for the control of the robotic arm in Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) applications and to improve the user experience of TEDAX agents. Tests were conducted with the support of police agents Explosive Ordnance Disposal Unit-Arequipa (UDEX-AQP), who evaluated the developed interfaces to find a more intuitive system that generates the least stress load to the operator, resulting that our proposed multimodal interface presents better results compared to traditional interfaces. The evaluation of the laboratory experiences was based on measuring the workload and usability of each interface evaluated.

One of the main problems of Central Italy forest sector is the low economical valorization of wood products and in particular of fuel wood. According to this there is the need of products diversification. In order to reach this goal it is fundamental the implementation of scientific research, not only to find new possible innovative solutions, but also for the recovering of traditional products which nowadays are abandoned, obviously trying to improve them with new technologies. A feasible example is wood charcoal, which years ago was the main product of Central Italy forests but today is completely disappeared from forest chain. This assortment could be rediscovered in order to improve forest value chain. According to this a new model of mobile charcoal kiln was tested evaluating the characteristics of the process and of the product. The results of the analysis showed that the process of carbonization with the new mobile charcoal kiln is very efficient and productive. This process could be very advantageous for local community, differentiating economically marginal productions and qualifying new operators., Proceedings of the 28th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 6-9 July 2020, Virtual, pp. 686-689

Coppice is one of the most important management system of Italian forests. An overall view of Italian coppices situation taken from National Forest Inventory is given in the present work. Moreover forest enterprises characteristics were analyzed and the overlay between these investigated parameters allowed to an evaluation of the improvement possibilities of coppice management in Italian context. The main results of this analysis showed that the main problems of Italian forest sector, with particular reference to coppice are: predominance of private properties, lacking of forest utilizations planning, lacking of technological innovation mostly linked to bunching-extraction operation, low economic value of fuel wood and lacking of products diversification., Proceedings of the 28th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 6-9 July 2020, Virtual, pp. 74-76

According to recent bioeconomy programs, chemical compounds derived from natural sources will be more available in regions where these compounds can be obtained economically than more expensive synthetic chemicals. In addition, the biorefinery is becoming an important aspect for green chemistry development aimed at ensuring the necessity to achieve the best objectives as favourable as possible from restricted natural resources such as forest biomass. One of the main scope is to generate diversified, innovative and renewable products using on-site bioresources such as biomass of wood and tree residues. Poplar tree species, including all their huge varieties, are largely cultivated in the world as a fast growing bioenergy crop. However the enormous potential of this specie in the other fields is still under-evaluated. The aim of this study was to verify the influence of thermal treatment at 180, 200 and 220 °C on wood extracts obtained via three different extraction techniques: maceration, ultrasound-assisted extraction and accelerated solvent extraction. Results showed the effect of heat treatments and extraction techniques on polyphenol, flavonoid contents and antioxidant activity. This investigation clearly showed the differential effects of temperature and extraction techniques on both antioxidant activity and secondary compounds contents., Proceedings of the 28th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 6-9 July 2020, Virtual, pp. 163-168

Turkey oak (Quercus cerris L.) is a deciduous species characterized by high morphological variability and a widespread distribution range along South-East Europe. The wood of Turkey oak is scarcely considered as industrial lumber and is mainly used as firewood. Biomass pre-processing by heating improves feedstock consistency (mainly loss of water) and thereby improves its energetic efficiency. The main goal of this research was to evaluate how different hydro-thermal treatments effect the high calorific values and the relative ash content of lignin derived from Turkey oak wood differentially treated by combining temperature, time and steaming parameters. Sapwood and heartwood were distinguished for each treatment. Twelve different treatments were performed by using samples randomly selected. Samples were treated in a small heating unit with ± 1 °C accuracy under atmospheric pressure, according to two different heating cycles namely 120 and 180 °C. The Klason lignin content was assessed by a modified TAPPI method. High calorific value (HCV) was calculated by the fire testing technology bomb calorimeter method. Thermal treatment and the steaming processes significantly increased the HCV in examined wood samples. The strongest effect was highlighted when steaming was associated to the highest temperature. The combined effect of steaming and heating was shown to be effective in the process improvement in order to obtain both a higher content of lignin and a corresponding improvement of HCV., Proceedings of the 28th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 6-9 July 2020, Virtual, pp. 616-617

Brazil is a major sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum L.) producer and its production more than doubled over the last decades to meet global bioenergy demands for reducing crude oil dependency and mitigating climate change. With the progressive shift from a burned to a non-burned harvest system, most of the straw presently retained on the soil surface has become economically viable feedstock for bioenergy production. Large-scale bioenergy demand has triggered new approaches to straw management in Brazilian sugarcane fields in fact, straw is a promising feedstock for bioelectricity and cellulosic ethanol in Brazil since has become available in large quantities in the field. Straw can be used as fuel for cogeneration systems of sugarcane mills to increase surplus electricity for commercialization. However, the exploitation of straw potential is still limited due to some challenges related to its agricultural harvesting. In this work, two innovative solution for straw recovery are proposed to increase the quality of the biomass reducing the ash content and simplifying the harvesting value chain. The first possibility evaluated the change of the windrowing process technique, from the traditional one to the belt windrower. The second possibility studied was the baling of the straw biomass directly from the harvesting machine, directing one fan of the cleaning system into the baler that follows the harvesting machine. The two harvesting systems proposed tackle the problem providing a solution at the present bottlenecks. However, further studies will be needed to provide scientific evidence of the solutions proposed by acquiring experimental data during straw harvesting field test

AGROinLOG project has tested the integrated biomass logistics centres (IBLC) concept in three real agro-industries in Europe. The relevance of the IBLC strategy relies on the fact that it allows agro-industries to create a new activity with lower investment, increasing incomes, stabilizing their annual activity (avoiding idle periods) and maintaining or creating new jobs. The demos’ studies were performed in Spain at a fodder industry, in Greece at an olive oil industry, and in Sweden inside a cereal processing industry. AGROinLOG validated these demos´ business models from a holistic perspective, also studying the replicability of the IBLC business model in other agro-industries from different sectors (vegetable oil extraction, olive oil chain, feed & fodder, wine, grain chain and sugar industry). Sectorial analysis was carried out as well, allowing the identification of opportunities among the targeted sector to replicate the IBLC concept, drawing barriers to overcome in each case. Thus, technical, economic and environmental feasibility of integrated biomass logistics centers (IBLCs) for food and non-food products have been assessed in detail.

Zeckendorf's theorem states that every positive integer can be decomposed uniquely as a sum of nonconsecutive Fibonacci numbers. The distribution of the number of summands converges to a Gaussian, and the individual measures on gajw between summands for m € [Fn,Fn+1) converge to geometric decay for almost all m as n→ ∞. While similar results are known for many other recurrences, previous work focused on proving Gaussianity for the number of summands or the average gap measure. We derive general conditions, which are easily checked, that yield geometric decay in the individual gap measures of generalized Zerkendorf decompositions attached to many linear recurrence relations.

The Italian Ministry of Agricultural, Food, Forestry and Tourism Policies, acknowledging the increasing importance of the agro-energy sector, has committed significant resources by financing several research projects of national interest, with the aim of making available to the agricultural and agro-industrial entrepreneur knowledge and technologies to support the change in the organizational structure of the farm in order to foster the production of bio-energies in the agricultural sector. The SUSCACE Project (Scientific Support for Agricultural Conversion towards Energy Crops) was developed to respond to the concrete and urgent demand of research, advanced by stockholders. The project has in fact the purpose of: i) providing technical and scientific support to stakeholders, finding solutions to the problems identified by themselves; ii) making available to the farmers technological innovations strategic for the outcome of the supply chains; iii) sharing with the stakeholders of the agro-energy sector the most recent acquisitions of scientific research in order to help them in the choices of energies crops species, varieties and cultivation techniques in the different specific environment ; iv) disseminating the technologies developed by training the farmers in the new technologies utilization. The project took into consideration agronomic, technological and mechanical aspects of fast growing tree species (poplar, black locust, eucalyptus) and herbaceous crops, both oleaginous oil species (rapeseed, sunflower, brassica carinata, soybean) and ligno-cellulosic crops (common reed, sorghum from fiber, hemp). Three CREA Research Center are involved: Research Centre for Engineering and Agro-Food processing, Research Centre for Forestry and Wood and Research Centre for Agriculture and Environment., Proceedings of the 27th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 27-30 May 2019, Lisbon, Portugal, pp. 351-362

In Italy, there has been a significant increase of the areas cultivated with short-rotation for- estry (SRF) poplar (Populus spp.) for the production of lignocellulosic biomass. This species has been generally introduced on soils managed with conventional farming practices that led to the formation of a hardpan. This constitutes a serious obstacle for root development and water availability, which affect the successful establishment of the plantation. To this end the Unit of Agricultural Engineering of the Agricultural Research Council (CRA-ING) has de- veloped a new system for reduced tillage (RT), to be used during the establishment of SRF poplar. This new system aims at breaking the tillage pan and at reducing both traffic inten- sity and site preparation cost. A new machine has been developed, which is based on a com- mercial rotary plough, suitably modified by adding a shank subsoiler. This machine can perform both deep soil ripping and surface ploughing in a single pass, treating narrow strips where poplar cuttings are to be planted. The study compared conventional tillage (CT) with RT, showing that latter allowed a dramatic reduction of the number of field operations and of all related problems, while creating better conditions for poplar rooting without meaningful effects on yield

The work has been developed under the AGROinLOG Project, aimed at demonstrating the technical, environmental and economic feasibility of Integrated Biomass Logistics Centres (IBLC) for food and non-food products. The goal of the project is to give support to one of the agroindustries selected in the Project, dehydrating facility, to build an IBLC extending the utilization of their equipment used for regular activity to new business chain based on the valorisation of agricultural residues, cereal straw and maize stalks. In particular, the purpose of this work is to evaluate the maximum distance between the fields and the storage centre from which it is more economically convenient to gather the biomass with balers instead of forage hauling equipment, regularly utilized in their activity. To this aim the performance of the machines (working times, yield and material losses) and fuel consumption in each operation (harvesting, loading, transport and unloading) of both yards have been evaluated. With the data collected in field, machine costs analysis was performed. The total costs per ton of biomass harvested (€ t-1) are about 59% higher for baling system and from the analysis of unitary transport costs, resulted a cost per ton per km three times higher when the biomass is transported with the self-loading wagon., Proceedings of the 26th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 14-17 May 2018, Copenhagen, Denmark, pp. 314-317

Biomass combustion is a process widely used for heat and power generation through use of different types of plants provided with systems for flue gas cleaning in order to ensure a low environmental impact. Emissions from biomass combustion concern different types of compounds, from CO2, CO, SOX, NOX, particulate matter (PM) to persistent organic pollutants (POPs). Obviously, emissions are linked to the biomass characteristics and to the operating parameters of combustion facility. The aim of this work concerns the evaluation of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs) and polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs) produced from combustion tests of elm and poplar. Results showed that PCDD/Fs and PCBs were lower than 1 pg I-TEQ/Nm3 and these value are very low if compared with those referred to combustion of woody biomass in facilities provided with high efficiency systems for flue gas cleaning., Proceedings of the 26th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 14-17 May 2018, Copenhagen, Denmark, pp. 606-609

Bioenergy is one of the most important renewable energy sources for electricity, heat and biofuels. Solid biomass in form of woodchip is widespread but woodchip quality variability is a concern. The quality monitoring is difficult due to the complexity of standard analysis being slow, destructive and expensive and requiring skilled operators. Moreover, some information, like the origin and source of the biofuels, is difficult to be measured. The aim of this study is the development of innovative models based on NIRS and multivariate data analysis starting from 150 samples collected from an important biomass power plant for the prediction of ash and moisture contents. Different preprocessing techniques were employed to remove physical phenomena before performing multivariate data analysis. The results highlight the possibility to exploit the moisture content model for screening application in quality control process of the solid biofuels, while the ash content model can be used for the discrimination of the material between high or low-quality classes, so for rough applications. In conclusion, NIR spectroscopy can be implemented directly in the production line, allowing the improvement of the solid biofuels quality control and overcoming the problems of sampling and sample representativeness., Proceedings of the 26th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 14-17 May 2018, Copenhagen, Denmark, pp. 326-332

BECOOL project, Deliverable D2.1

Come già avvenuto per le fustaie italiane, negli ultimi anni stiamo assistendo all'ingresso della meccanizzazione avanzata anche all'interno delle utilizzazioni del ceduo. Molte imprese hanno iniziato a sostituire la motosega con teste abbattitrici a disco o con cesoie applicate ad escavatori cingolati. Dove è possibile accedere in bosco con questi mezzi è stato riscontrato un sensibile miglioramento della sicurezza ; l 'operatore, infatti, è protetto all'interno della cabina dell'escavatore da eventuali impatti e schiacciamenti causati dagli alberi abbattuti. Inoltre l 'abbattimento meccanizzato delle ceppaie riduce i costi di utilizzazione , ciò si riflette sul prezzo del prodotto finito rendendo/o concorrenziale con quello proveniente dall'estero.

The present work concerns the economic and fi nancial evaluation of a small biogas plant (power plant of 250 kWel), with reference to the case of a biogas plant fed with a bio-matrix classifi able as both a by-product and a product. The study was focused on the comparison of several incentive systems that have followed over time. According to the analysis carried out using some economic indicators, results revealed that the investment profi tability was descending passing from the old all-inclusive rate tothe current incentive scheme. Furthermore, it is possible to emphasize that the use of products, rather than by-products, penalizesinvestment by reducing the incentive rate, thus putting the investment in a high fi nancial risk. Thanks to the present study, it canbe assumed that the small biogas production plants enable positive benefi ts in social, economic and environmental terms.