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Abstract Industrial development and increased energy requirements have led to high consumption of fossil fuels. Thus, environmental pollution has become a profound problem. Every year, a large amount of agro-industrial, municipal and forest residues are treated as waste, but they can be recovered and used to produce thermal and electrical energy through biological or thermochemical conversion processes. Among the main types of agro-industrial waste, soluble coffee residues represent a significant quantity all over the world. Silver skin and spent coffee grounds (SCG) are the main residues of the coffee industry. The many organic compounds contained in coffee residues suggest that their recovery and use could be very beneficial. Indeed, thanks to their composition, they can be used in the production of biodiesel, as a source of sugar, as a precursor for the creation of active carbon or as a sorbent for the removal of metals. After a careful evaluation of the possible uses of coffee grounds, the aim of this research was to show a broad characterization of coffee waste for energy purposes through physical and chemical analyses that highlight the most significant quality indexes, the interactions between them and the quantification of their importance. Results identify important tools for the qualification and quantification of the effects of coffee waste properties on energy production processes. They show that (SCG) are an excellent raw material as biomass, with excellent values in terms of calorific value and low ash content, allowing the production of 98% coffee pellets that are highly suitable for use in thermal conversion systems. Combustion tests were also carried out in an 80kWth boiler and the resulting emissions without any type of abatement filter were characterized.

The study aimed to evaluate the aboveground dry biomass production and the quality of fresh and dried chips obtained by eight different species grown under SRC culture and subjected to two harvesting systems and chipping devices. The present study was part of a long project including different species and management regime of a SRC plantation, which was established in 2007 on a level soil at the Improsta experimental farm (Eboli, Salerno, Italy). In 2015, It was realized a comparative test chipping eight different species grown under SRC system: Fraxinus oxyphylla, Robinia pseudoacacia, Salix alba, Populus nigra (Limatola) and four hybrid genotypes of Populus x euroamericana (Grimminge, Vesten, Hoogvorst, Muur), harvested at the end of the first three years rotation coppice (2012-2014). The trees were chipped both fresh and dried. The fresh biomass was harvested and chipped in a single phase by a self-propelled forage harvester Claas Jaguar 880 (nominal power of 353 kW), equipped with GBE biomass head for trees cutting and harvester feeding. The dried biomass was chipped by a forestry wood disk chipper Farmi Forest CH 260, after two months of storage in the field. The plantation mean of the standing aboveground dry biomass was greater for P. nigra Limatola, followed by F. oxyphylla. As consequences, they showed respectively a high mean annual increment of aboveground dry biomass of 14.38 and 10.16 t ha-1 year-1. The first coppice rotation dry biomass yield was not significantly different for Hoogvorst and Vesten. In contrast to the biometric attributes clone Muur showed a low aboveground dry biomass production, followed by Grimminge and S. alba with a significantly lower production. Moisture content of the fresh biomass ranged between 42.59 % and 56.84 % for black locust and willow, respectively. The dried biomass ranged, instead, between 17.32 % for willow and 36.80 % for Populus nigra. The average reduction of moisture content after storage was 43.97 % with the highest and lowest rate of dehydration for willow (69.53 %) and poplar Vesten (28.70 %). Concerning the particle size distribution, the presence of large chips (63-45 mm) and oversized (> 63 mm) were extremely limited for the fresh chips, while it is considerably higher for the dried chips. Fractions ranging from 45 to 3 mm were the most represented for all species and treatment, accounting between 84.09 % and 90.65 % for the fresh chips, and 74.15 % and 85.68 % for the dried chips. The comminution carried out with the disk chipper on dried biomass always leads to a decrease in the percentage of accept (45-3 mm fractions) respect to the same fresh species chipped by drum chipper.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of two-pass harvesting system on giant reed (Arundo donax). The biomass was shredded, dried in the field and baled for logistic chain and storage. The first step was cutting and grinding biomass crops with a specific shredder rear-mounted on an agricultural tractor. Subsequently, after some days of drying in the field monitoring continuously its moisture content, the Arundo biomass was collected in round-bales for storage. This harvesting system presents the following advantages: immediate and long biomass storage (12-14 % or lower moisture content), better use of farm mechanization for hay making, diversified use of the dried biomass (combustion and II° generation ethanol), reduced fuel consumption (in line or even lower than other ordinary crops present in that area). The tests carried out showed the technical and energy features of the harvest technology based on the adoption of only one specific shredder machine, designed and developed by an Italian constructor for more biomass herbaceous crops (Arundo, Sorghum, Panicum, Mischantus, etc). This machine is suitable for highly vegetative developed crops and can spread the product in all soil surface or windrows. The tests, conducted in the South of Italy (Campania region) in an experimental farm of Torre Lama, showed a good system performance, slightly lower than 1.5 ha h-1 (1.47), with 4.88 km h-1operative speed.

Apricot trees usually bear more fruits than they can adequately support. Crop load adjustment through fruit thinning is a routine practice adopted by fruit growers to obtain a marketable product. Manual thinning, although effective, is a labor-intense and expensive operation, accounting for over 30% of the production costs; chemical thinning, on the other hand, provides inconsistent results and, though relatively inexpensive, is an unreliable practice.The aim of this study is to test a new thinner machine on apricots fruitlets, identifying the most suitable working speed combining thinning with the lack of visible damage on branches and on the remaining fruits. The machine is composed by a rotor equipped with radial rods on a central axe mounted in a rear tree point linkage of a tractor. Trials were carried out in April 2016 in an apricot orchard sited in Cesena (FC). The experiment aimed to compare mechanical thinning at different working speeds (1.11 and 0.83 m s-1) and hand thinning on green fruits (2 ≤ Ø ≤ 2.5 cm). The thinning effect was evaluated by counting the remaining fruits from 40 randomly chosen branches in the upper and down part of four plants replicates. After the mechanical thinning, a manual thinning of finishing was performed, aimed to eliminate the fruits too close together on the branch and, in general, to ensure a uniform fruit set on the tree. The time required for thinning was measured in the mechanically thinned trees and compared with the ones thinned only by hand (control). The two different working speeds gave two different thinning intensities: at 0.83 m s-1 fallen fruits counted for 44 % of the total while 47 % at 1.11 m s-1 . The thinning effects depended on the branch length: the highest fruit reduction was recorded (50.3 %) in more-than-35-cm long branches at 1.11 m s-1 while the lowest one (44.4 %) was recorded in less-than-15-cm long branches. The results obtained in the thesis at 0.83 m s-1 were different. The percentage of fruit reduction varied, indeed, from 47.5 % recorded in more-than-35-cm long branches and 41.3 % recorded in less-than-15-cm long branches. Mechanical thinning can produce a net economic impact on apricot cultivation and, in some cases, can replace manual thinning and reduce the labor costs considerably.

In the Italian environments, the rapeseed (Brassica napus L.) is subjected, at ripening, to a seed shattering causing significant losses that reduce the yield and increase the oilseed rape seedbank in the soil. Meteorological events and mechanical harvesting are the main factors affecting the extent of seed dispersal. Lacking the availability of works investigating the actual losses during the harvest at large scale, the Consiglio per la sperimentazione e la ricerca in agricoltura, Unità di ricerca per l’ingegneria agraria (CRA-ING) has conducted a study in order to determine the effective seed losses at on-farm scale. The amount of losses of two combine headers, traditional for wheat and specific for oilseed rape harvest, was compared. The rapeseed header had a hydraulic sliding cut-bar and two vertical electric blade on both sides in order to reduce the pulling and tearing action between the cut-off plants and those still standing. The seed losses were evaluated before and during the harvesting by using plastic trays placed on the ground within the crop rows. The trays were arranged in a layout allowing the estimation of the seed losses of three different sectors of the combine headers. The results have demonstrated that, at farm level, the use of a specific oilseed rape header adapted and optimized for the crop requirements allows to obtain a level of seed losses (0,97% of total production), below the values reported in literature. For rapeseed, the higher losses are localized at the final parts of the head, where the plants are strictly intertwined.

Woody Biomasses (from agriculture and forestry activities) are among the most promising renewable energy sources. Current literature describes woody biomass feedstock supply chains supporting biofuels and utilities industries: the potentially productive land area overheads required for biomass production may results in a complex logistic within the whole chain. Its effective enhancement requires significant changes in the logistics environment of energy plants for sustainable energy production and the sequence-dependent procurement chains for biomasses furthermore complicate these changes. According to this, optimizing harvesting and supplying operations turns out to be strategic within the framework of the current energy policy. In this work we present a case study carried out monitoring 57 short rotation forestry (SRF) production sites placed in Emilia Romagna Region, Northern Italy, all supplying the harvested biomass to the same biomass power plant placed in the province of Ravenna (Italy). The overall average yield of these sites was 55 t/ha, the site surfaces ranged from 0.3 to 20 hectares and the distance from the power plant ranged between 8.2 to 102 km with one production site only within 10 km from the power plant. Harvest and transport costs were calculated according to two different harvesting scenarios: i) single phase harvesting (one cutting/chopping machine + tractors and trailers); ii) double phase harvesting (cutting/mowing machine followed after 80 days by chopping machine + tractors and trailers). Results show that, according to the first scenario, at increasing distances overall harvesting and transport costs ranged from 8.9 to 21.0 ± 1.3 􀀍/t (average ± standard deviation), while, with reference to the second scenario, they increased from 10.3 to 23.8 ± 1.5 􀀍/t with the transportation costs accounting from 16 to almost 70% of the total costs.

Five years old poplar (Populus spp.) plantation represents an interesting model of productivity. The most attractive characteristics of this energy crop are the handling flexibility, the high yield of biomass per area unit and the good quality of the chips obtainable. The mechanical harvesting of five-years old poplar plantations requires the use of specialized forest machineries such as harvester, feller, forwarder and chipper. Usually, after felling, the working phases consist of extraction, stacking and chipping. Generally, the last one is carried out in a “static phase”, where the product is taken from staked logs by using a hydraulic arm having a gripper that feed the chipping machine. In order to introduce technological innovations for the medium rotation forestry harvesting, the Consiglio per la Ricerca e la sperimentazione in Agricoltura, Unità di ricerca per l’Ingegneria agraria (CRAING) of Monterotondo (Rome, Italy) has developed a five years poplar cutwindrower and a self-propelled chipper equipped with a pick up system. The prototype of cut-windrower is a semi-trailed machine powered by a 95 kW tractor (at least). It mounts a cutting system and a double pincer with variable positioning. During the cutting phase the plant is grasped by the double pincer which conveys and unloads the stem along the inter-row. The trees are placed parallel to the progress of the tractor, but oriented in the opposite direction. The biomass windrowed is then chipped in a dynamic phase directly from the inter row using the self-propelled chipper equipped with the pick-up head. In the first tests, the cut-windrower has reached an operative working capacity of 0.22 ha h-1, with an operative production of 44 t h-1. On the other hand, the self-propelled chipper has showed an operative working capacity equal to 0.18 ha h-1, and an operative production of 35 t h-1 about. Both machines have shown good quality of the work performed and the results obtained indicates that the work phases could be simplified in order to reduce both the time of use and the harvesting costs.

Industrial development and increased energy requirements have led to high consumption of fossil fuels. Thus, environmental pollution has become a profound problem. Every year, a large amount of agro-industrial, municipal and forest residues are treated as waste, but they can be recovered and used to produce thermal and electrical energy through biological or thermochemical conversion processes. Among the main types of agro-industrial waste, soluble coffee residues represent a significant quantity all over the world. Silver skin and spent coffee grounds (SCG) are the main residues of the coffee industry. The many organic compounds contained in coffee residues suggest that their recovery and use could be very beneficial. Indeed, thanks to their composition, they can be used in the production of biodiesel, as a source of sugar, as a precursor for the creation of active carbon or as a sorbent for the removal of metals. After a careful evaluation of the possible uses of coffee grounds, the aim of this research was to show a broad characterization of coffee waste for energy purposes through physical and chemical analyses that highlight the most significant quality indexes, the interactions between them and the quantification of their importance. Results identify important tools for the qualification and quantification of the effects of coffee waste properties on energy production processes. They show that (SCG) are an excellent raw material as biomass, with excellent values in terms of calorific value and low ash content, allowing the production of 98% coffee pellets that are highly suitable for use in thermal conversion systems. Combustion tests were also carried out in an 80kW th boiler and the resulting emissions without any type of abatement filter were characterized.

Tumor homing peptides (THPs) specific for a representative breast cancer cell line (MCF-7) were carefully selected basing on a phage-displayed peptide library freely available on the web, namely the "TumorHoPe: A Database of Tumor Homing Peptides". The selected THPs were synthesized and evaluated in terms of their affinity toward MCF-7 cells. Out of 5 tested THPs, 3 best-performing peptide sequences and 1 scrambled sequence were separately conjugated to spherical gold nanoparticles yielding stable nanoconjugates. THP nanoconjugates were examined for their ability to actively target MCF-7 cells in comparison to noncancerous 3T3-L1 fibroblast cells. These THP-gold nanoconjugates exhibited good selectivity and binding affinity by flow cytometry, and low cytotoxicity as assayed by cell death experiments. The uptake of targeted nanoconjugates by the breast cancer cells was confirmed by transmission electron microscopy analysis. This work demonstrates that it is possible to exploit the conjugation of short peptides selected from phage-displayed libraries to develop nanomaterials reliably endowed with tumor targeting potential irrespective of a specific knowledge of the target cell biology., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)