Renewable Energy Global Innovations features: Energy potential from residual biomass towards meeting the EU renewable energy and climate targets. The Italian case

Significance statement

The paper deals with assessment of the available residual lignocellulosic biomass in the Italian territory for evaluation of the potential of bioenergy for the generation of heat and electricity. The need for this work has been due to Italian energy supply which has always been heavily affected by the imports and other things. Among the total energy utilized, 76 % was imported at a cost of 55.8 billion euros. This has given a clear need for alternate source of energy through biomass by which the overall import or dependency from outside can be reduced. The use of lignocellulosic biomass in this work is due to plenty of availability of it within the country.

Hence in this work, the authors University of Bari Aldo Moro (Drs. Annarita Paiano and Giovanni Lagioia) has devised crop residues. These residues are specified and are subjected to quantitative estimate. This estimate was done by a linear correlation. Then come the production of the crop per year. The authors have also evaluated the reproducibility factor of the resides via production of the crop every year, the harvesting technique. Then the residues assessed are grouped and evaluated to three categories: A main residue, a secondary residue and agro industrial residue. From the standard equations, the mass of main reside, secondary residue and mass of agro industrial residue are identified. Thus the overall mass of the residual lignocellulosic biomass is identified.

From the guidelines of the Italian NREAP, a mandatory target says that 60 % of the total residual biomass to converted for electricity and the remaining 40 % to heat. Thus this calculates to a final energy of 4.57 Mtoe which is only 2.7 % of the gross Italian energy consumption in 2013 (171 Mtoe). Thus it is identified that it could save 2 billion euros per year to the government of Italy.

In addition to the above, the greenhouse gases from the biomass residue will help to share fossil fuels and enhance environmental performance. From the standard techniques from research papers, we calculated from the analysis in this paper upon the emissions of Co2. It was identified that the estimations of the total savings of CHG emissions produced by energy generation (heat + electricity) from the residual biomass is 52 Mt Co2 eq for the entire Italian territory per year.

Thus we can see that residual biomass usage for energy production has reduced the import required by the Italian government from others. In addition it has also reduced the Co2 emissions from the country – thus allowing decarburization of the energy supplied. The challenges towards achieving this are also practically brought out and how it will be helpful in the future of 2020 and 2030 are also illustrated with estimations. The conclusions underline that an appropriate bioenergy policy can help decarbonize the economy, enhance the reliability of the energy supply and additionally it can revitalize rural areas.

     

 

 

Figure 2:  Trends of electricity and cogeneration of bionergy in Italy in the period 2006- 2013 (GWh).

About The Author

Annarita Paiano, a PhD in Commodity Science, technology, innovation and sustainable production, is an Assistant Professor at Department of Economics, Management and Law studies, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Italy.

She is author of approximately 60 scientific papers. The research of Paiano mainly concerns two sectors of the European Research Council: SH3_1 Environment, resources and sustainability and SH3_4 Social and Industrial Ecology. In particular the research topics concern the material and energy flows analysis, the end of life management and the circular economy strategy.

She is an Editorial Board Member of following journal: Low Carbon Economy, International Journal of Managerial Studies and Research, Advances in Energy Research (ERI). An International Journal. Paiano is a Reviewer for many prestigious international journals (Elsevier and Wiley online Library Publisher). 

About The Author

Giovanni Lagioia is a Full Professor in the Department of Economics, Management and Business Law, Commodity Science Section at the University of Bari Aldo Moro, Italy. He teaches commodity science and technology of the production chain. His main interests of research refer to the following topics: studies on circular economy focusing on the relationships between resources, commodity and environmental studies on the material flow analysis and environmental impact of production processes and consumption. Lagioia is an Editorial Board Member of Journal of Management & Enterprise Development (IJMED), International Journal of Sustainable Economy (IJSE).

He is the Director of PhD course on Economics and Management, vice Director of the Department of Economics, Management and Business Law and Dean of Faculty of Economics at Catholic University Our Lady of Good Counsel of Tirana (Albania).

He is a member of the Italian Commodity Science Academy (AISME) of the International Society of Industrial Ecology (ISIE) and International Academy of Commodity Science and Technology (IGWT).  

Journal Reference

Annarita Paiano^,, Giovanni Lagioia. Energy potential from residual biomass towards meeting the EU renewable energy and climate targets. The Italian case. Energy Policy,Volume 91, 2016, Pages 161–173.

Department of Business and Law Studies, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Largo Abbazia Santa Scolastica, 53-70124 Bari Italy

 

 

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