Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
33 (2009) 79 87
Available at www.sciencedirect.com
http://www.elsevier.com/locate/biombioe
DREAMDipartimento di Ricerche Energetiche ed Ambientali Universita` di Palermo, Viale delle Scienze, edif. 9-90128 Palermo, Italy
DESAFDipartimento di Economia dei Sistemi Agro-Forestali, Universita` di Palermo, Palermo, Italy
ab st rac t
Article history:
order to assess the technical and economic potential of biomass exploitation for energy
production in Sicily. The methodology was based on the use of agricultural, economic,
23 April 2008
climatic, and infrastructural data in a GIS. Data about land use, transportation facilities,
urban cartography, regional territorial planning, terrain digital model, lithology, climatic
types, and civil and industrial users have been stored in the GIS to define potential areas for
Keywords:
Biomass
gathering the residues coming from the pruning of olive groves, vineyards, and other
agricultural crops, and to assess biomass available for energy cultivation. Further, it was
possible to assess the potential of biodiesel production, supposing the cultivation of
Biofuel
Geographical Information System
Assessing regional potential
rapeseed in arable crop areas. For the biomass used for direct combustion purposes, the
economic availability has been assessed assuming a price of the biomass and comparing it
with other fuels. This assessment has shown the strong competitiveness of firewood in
comparison with traditional fossil fuels when the collection system is implemented in an
efficient way. Moreover, the economic potential of biodiesel was assessed considering the
on-going financial regime for fuel. At the same time, the study has shown a significant
competitiveness of the finished biomass (pellets), and good potential for a long-term
development of this market. An important result was the determination of biofuel
production potential in Sicily. An outcome of the study was to show the opportunities
stemming from the harmonisation of Energy Policy with the Waste Management System
and Rural Development Plan.
& 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1.
Introduction
ARTICLE IN PRESS
80
33 (2009) 79 87
The first sector where the exploitation of biomass byproducts might be possible is the residential sector, in
particular for domestic heating systems.
The analysis has also included the possibility of
biomass exploitation as fuel in power plants for electricity
generation or in central heating plants. While the fuel
required in small direct combustion systems can be of
various types, quality, and dimensions (wood chip, pellets,
olive husk), power applications require fuels with quite
homogeneous physical and chemical characteristics. Biomasses have to be conditioned through various processes
such as chipping, slash chopping, or cutting and, if necessary,
cleaned from extraneous matter (soil, iron material, etc.)
and dried.
In addition, fuel that is homogeneous in size and typology
represents an enormous advantage for handling operations,
storage in silos, and fuelling operations of the systems. These
needs can easily be met by introducing intermediate processing operations, such as chipping and desiccation, to be
carried out before storage at the combustion plant. The
introduction of these additional operations causes an increase in the operating costs with consequent higher risk for
investment [10].
The methodology adopted to assess the quantity and the
distribution of the potential resources is based on the
development of a GIS. The GIS was implemented with a
database containing information about land cover, land use,
regional cartography, administrative boundaries, populated
areas, road network, a digital terrain model, lithological map,
climatic data, industry, and a civil census [11]. As an example,
land cover has been considered according to the CORINE map
(Fig. 1). All the other data sources used for this study are
summarised in Table 1.
ARTICLE IN PRESS
BIOMASS AND BIOENERGY
Resources
2.
Resources
The main sectors that can provide biomass for energy users
are the agricultural sector, energy cultivations (rapeseed in
particular), forest harvesting, short rotation forestry, and the
food and wood industries breeding sector. Each sector
33 (2009) 79 87
81
directly usable;
usable after being subjected to a homogenisation process;
usable after being subjected to a homogenisation process
2.1.
ARTICLE IN PRESS
82
33 (2009) 79 87
Shrubby areas.
3.
Land use;
Digital Terrain Model;
Climate;
Geological substratum.
3.1.
ARTICLE IN PRESS
BIOMASS AND BIOENERGY
33 (2009) 79 87
83
4.
Energetic cultivation
The possibility of cultivating an energetic crop is demonstrated by rapeseed [12,29]. This is a plant that can be adapted
to the Mediterranean climate and in particular to the Sicilian
climate. Several studies have shown the possibility of
cultivating this plant in non-argillaceous terrain with a
rainfall greater than 600 mm/year. In order to assess the
potential production of rapeseed in Sicily using the GIS it was
possible to:
4.1.
ARTICLE IN PRESS
84
33 (2009) 79 87
4.2.
The latest developments of the European Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) [30] have focused on reducing the cost of
financial support towards agriculture and the achievement of
better environmental functions. For this purpose, non-food
and energy crops can play an important role. The objective of
granting income support to farmers, even without increasing
ARTICLE IN PRESS
BIOMASS AND BIOENERGY
5.
85
33 (2009) 79 87
Municipal
Solar thermal
Solar power
plants
Photovoltaic
Wind
Biomass
Mini-Hydro
ARTICLE IN PRESS
86
33 (2009) 79 87
Short term
Implementation of collection centres
and final users incentives
Support to exploitation of Zootecnic
waste for biogas
Support start-up cultivation of 10 km2
of rape-seed and transesterification
Mid term
Further implementation of collection
centres and final users incentives
Support SRF cultivation and power
plants
Support cultivation 500 km2 of rapeseed
and transesterification
Long term
Support cultivation 1000 km2 of
rapeseed and transesterification
Further support SRF cultivation and
power plants
Public
investment
(Mh)
Avoided
emissions
(kt CO2)
Primary
energy
saving (TJ)
Cost of primary
energy saving
(kh GJ 1)
Avoided
CO2 cost
(ht 1)
24.5
68.5
0.82
29
14.3
5.0
59.0
0.87
3.4
0.25
2.7
0.05
5.4
95.3
30.0
99.4
1.19
25
12.1
23.0
49.6
0.74
31
18.5
12.5
136.0
2.30
5.4
93.4
25.0
273.0
4.60
5.4
93.5
59.0
123.2
1.84
32
19.1
6.
Conclusions
territorial components that influence the bio-energetic production and its economical convenience, including proximity
to streets, morphology and elevation of terrain, density of
facilities, and other factors. According to the considered
variables, we identified the most exploitable biomass sources
and then planned actions to implement them for the
proposed purpose (Table 3). It was possible to quantify the
potential results of the planned actions (for immediate
biomasses uses, including home heating and heat production
for businesses), considering the environmental issues. Despite the feasibility of biomass energy production, we stress
that the use of biomass depends on assistance from public
entities such as the Strategic Operative Plan, Rural Development Plan, National and Regional Programs and Regional
Energy Master Plan.
R E F E R E N C E S
ARTICLE IN PRESS
BIOMASS AND BIOENERGY
[6]
[7]
[8]
[9]
[10]
[11]
[12]
[13]
[14]
[15]
[16]
[17]
conference of the Americas: energy, environment, agriculture, and industry, 1995, p. 214.
Cole N, Dagnall SP, Hill J, Jenner C, Pegg D, Rushton KM, et al.
Resource mapping and analysis of potential sites for short
rotation coppice in the UKassessing the opportunities for
biomass to energy technologies. In: Chartier PH, Ferrero GL,
Henius UM, Hultberg S, Sachau J, Wiinblad M, editors.
Proceedings of the ninth European bioenergy conference:
biomass for energy and environment. Oxford: Pergamon;
1996. p. 18116.
Graham RL, English BC, Noon CE. A Geographic Information
System-based modeling system for evaluating the cost of
delivered energy crop feedstock. Biomass and Bioenergy
2000;18:30929.
Ma JG, Scott NR, Degloria SD, Lembo AJ. Siting analysis of
farm-based centralized anaerobic digester systems for distributed generation using GIS. Biomass and Bioenergy
2005;28:591600.
Krukanont P, Prasertsan S. Geographical distribution of
biomass and potential sites rubber wood fired power plants
in Southern Thailand. Biomass and Bioenergy 2004;26:4759.
Bruzzi I, Petrini C, Malagoli E. Colture agricole alternative per
la produzione di elettricita`. LInformatore Agrario, no. 2, 1996.
p. 3944.
41 Censimento Generale dellAgricoltura ISTAT 2002.
Leto C, Carrubba A, Cibella R. Il Colza, coltura da rinnovo per
gli ambienti della Sicilia interna. LInf. Agr., Verona, no. 38,
1992. p. 8990.
Leto C, Carrubba A, Trapani P. Valutazione di cultivar di Colza
per uso alimentare. LInf. Agr., Verona, no. 38, 1994. p. 314.
Amato G. Rese del colza in 41 prove sperimentali, dati grezzi.
Dipartimento di Agronomia Ambientale e Territoriale, Universita` di Palermo; 2006.
AAVV. Utilizzazione energetica biomasse agro-forestali,
Agenzia Regionale Recupero Risorse Toscana; 1998.
AAVV. Biomasse per lEnergia, ISES Italia; 2004.
, Chiaramonti D, Nibbi L.
Bachiller AR, Mieres, JA, Gartner SO
Opportunities for biomass to energy in La Rioja (Spain) and
Tuscany (Italy). In: Proceedings of the first world conference on
biomass for energy and industry, Seville, Spain, 59 June 2000.
33 (2009) 79 87
87