1,721,030 research outputs found
A GIS-based approach to evaluate biomass potential from energy crops at regional scale
No full textThe aim of the paper is to propose a method to maximize energy production from arboreous and herbaceous dedicated crops given the characteristics of the local environment: geo-morphology, climate, natural heritage, current land use. The best energy crops available in the Italian panorama are identified and the problem of maximizing the bioenergy production over an entire regional area is formulated.
Each cultivar is thus assigned to the suitable land accounting for sensitive parameters that characterize it and taking into account current land use. The assumption made here is that marginal land and set-asides can be converted to energy crops without altering current practices and cash crops’ production. The method is based on the integration of GIS data (spatially continuous) with data derived from the agricultural census (spatially discrete). We carry out the analysis for Emilia-Romagna, in Northern Italy.
The sustainable growth of energy crops, with an optimized network of conversion facilities distributed in the territory, may significantly contribute to the local energy supply and to climate change mitigation
Sustainable forest biomass exploitation: An application of the CO2FIX model to Emilia-Romagna
No full textBiomass from the forest sector can be an important source of renewable energy and can contribute to climate change mitigation and bioenergy development. However, the removal of biomass has significant impacts on the forest ecosystem. Our aim is to analyze alternatives of sustainable forest management and to compare how they perform in terms of carbon savings. The analysis is performed with CO2FIX, a well-known carbon accounting model. The model was applied to the forests of the Italian region Emilia-Romagna. The behaviour of the most important forest macro-categories is investigated under common management alternatives: no harvest, maintenance of a constant stock, different rotation lengths, and maximization of harvested biomass. We evaluate their impact at landscape level on the regional carbon budget
Sustainable forest management for bioenergy
No full textBiomass from the forest sector can be an important source of renewable energy and can contribute to climate change mitigation and bioenergy development. However, the removal of biomass from forests can have significant impacts on the forest ecosystems and therefore requires a thorough analysis. The purpose of this work is to compare different alternatives of sustainable forest management with the aim of minimizing greenhouse gases emission. The model used for the analysis, CO2FIX, describes the flows of carbon per unit area of biomass, soil storage and bioenergy products. The model was applied to the forests of the Italian region of Lombardy. We identified four macro-categories: coniferous, deciduous, mixed coniferous and deciduous forests, short rotation forests. For each macro-category, we ran a simulation, with an annual time step for a hundred years horizon, of various management policies: no harvest activities, maintenance of a constant stock, different rotation lengths, maximization of harvested biomass. We identified the most efficient management policy for each macro-category in terms of carbon emissions saved and carbon sequestered. Over the entire region, it emerges that the potential contribution to climate change mitigation amounts to about 1.5 million tons of CO2eq per year, equal to about 15% of the total reduction needed to meet Kyoto Protocol targets in the region
The Value of Seasonal Productivity Forecasting in Biodiesel Plans
Full text linkCrop productivity is commonly assumed as a deterministic function when developing
agricultural plans. Actual data prove however that, even for the same soil at the same location, crop
productivity can be better interpreted as a random variable due to the meteorological conditions of the
specific year. For the production of biodiesel, crops are easily substitutable and the farmer can chose
every year between various alternatives. Without information on the seasonal meteorology, the
farmers select the crop to cultivate mainly on the basis of the expected productivity. However,
changes in the meteorological situation may result in a reduction in crop profitability. As a result,
a crop, that on average is less interesting, may become the best choice in a specific year. Given that
seasonal forecasts based on long range climatic variables, such as ENSO, are becoming available,
the paper examines their effectiveness in biodiesel production plans, with reference to an area in Mato Grosso, Brazil. We formulate and solve a mathematical programming problem to determine the most efficient crop plan under different scenarios: (i) no information about the seasonal meteorology, (ii) perfect information and (iii) meteorological forecasts with different precision. This allows us to
quantitatively evaluate how important the availability of seasonal productivity forecasting might be and
shows that even a rough seasonal forecast, if systematically applied, may improve the average
production and reduce the risk of traditional agricultural decisions
Una valutazione ambientale ed economica dell'utilizzo di biomasse a scopo energetico: il caso della provincia di Cremona
No full textOptimisation of combustion bioenergy in a farming district under different localisation strategies
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