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Simple Summary: The feeding and nutrition of Hermetia illucens becomes an important issue due to its ability to convert organic by-products obtained from agri-food chains into extremely valuable biomass. In this context, coffee silverskin, a by-product of coffee roasting, enriched with 5%, 10%, 20%, and 25% of microalgae (Schizochytrium limacinum and Isochrysis galbana), was investigated as a basal rearing substrate for H. illucens. The study also analyzed the evaluation of the environmental sustainability of diets. The results showed that the inclusion of microalgae in the diets led to an increase in larval growth performance, especially in larvae fed with S. limacinum. Conversely, the higher the proportion of microalgae, the greater the environmental impact of larval production. Therefore, considering that the 10% S. limacinum inclusion achieved the best waste reduction index and showed only minor differences compared to the higher inclusions of this microalgae, it can be considered a compromise between the nutritional properties of the insects and sustainability. Moreover, considering that the rearing substrate enriched with 10% S. limacinum achieved the best waste reduction index and showed only minor differences in terms of nutritional value of H. illucens prepupae compared to the higher inclusions of this microalgae, it can be considered a compromise for sustainable insect production. Hermetia illucens is a promising insect due to its ability to convert low-value substrates as food chain by-products into highly nutritious feed. Its feeding and nutrition are important issues. The aim of this work was to investigate the effect of different substrates consisting of coffee silverskin, a by-product of the roasting process, enriched with different inclusions of microalgae (5%, 10%, 20%, and 25%), Schizochytrium limacinum, and Isochrysis galbana, combined with the assessment of environmental sustainability by LCA. In general, the addition of microalgae led to an increase in larval growth performance due to the higher content of protein and lipids, although S. limacinum showed the best results with respect to larvae fed with coffee silverskin enriched with I. galbana. A higher prepupal weight was observed in larvae fed with 10%, 20%, and 25% S. limacinum; shorter development times in larvae fed with 25% of both S. limacinum and I. galbana; and a higher growth rate in larvae fed with 25% S. limacinum. The 10% S. limacinum inclusion was only slightly different from the higher inclusions. Furthermore, 10% of S. limacinum achieved the best waste reduction index. The greater the inclusion of microalgae, the greater the environmental impact of larval production. Therefore, the addition of 10% S. limacinum appears to be the best compromise for larval rearing, especially considering that a higher inclusion of microalgae did not yield additional benefits in terms of the nutritional value of H. illucens prepupae. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increase in the demand for energy supply during the past few decades has brought and will bring to a growth in the utilisation of renewable resources, in particular of solid biomasses. Considering the variability in the properties of biomass and the globalisation of the timber market, a chemical and physical characterisation is essential to determine the biomass quality. The specific international standards on solid biofuels (ISO 17225 series) describe proper specification and classification of wood chip and pellet, to ensure appropriate quality. Moreover, standard requires information about origin and source of the biomass, normally only to be declared by the producers. In order tofulfill the requirements for the biomass quality, the origin and the source should be assessed, even if currently is hard to determine, in particular on milled or densified biomass. Infrared spectroscopy can provide information on the biomass at the chemical level, directly linked also to its origin and source. This technique is fast and not destructive thus suitable alsofor online monitoring along the biofuel production chain. In this study, 60 samples belonging to 8 different species were collected and related spectra were acquired using a Fourier transform infrared (IR) spectrometer equipped with a module for solid analysis and analysed by principal component analysis. The results obtained show that the method is very efficient in the identification between coniferous and deciduous wood (99% confidence level) and good results were obtained in the recognition of coniferous/deciduous mixtures, too. Nevertheless, some clear differences have been also noted among intra-class grouping, but additional tests should be carried out. This technique can provide useful information to solid biofuel stakeholders about wood quality and origin, important especially for sustainability issues. Further work will be oriented to the development of IR methodologies for the fast measurement of other important biomass parameters (e.g., ash content, high calorific value, nitrogen content, etc.). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of biomass for increasing renewable energy sources mix is considered fundamental, despite some negative environmental impact of first-generation biofuels. The use of biomass obtained in a more sustainable way, as represented by agricultural wastes, should be favoured. The Mediterranean area and Italy in particular offer a large amount of vineyard pruning residues that can be converted into bioenergy. Since vineyards are exposed to treatments based on copper (Cu) and zinc, these metals last in wood residues during pruning and accumulate in the soil. In this study an evaluation of the concentrations of copper and other heavy metals in grapevine pruning wastes, when treated with common plant protection products, was carried out. The study was also extended to the soil, being potentially mixed to the biomass in the case of mechanical collection of pruning residues. The grapevine residues free ofimpurities that were collected during this study have typical values of copper in pruning wood, varying from 8.5 mg kg-1 when treated with low Cu product, to 19.2 mg kg-1 when treated with high Cu product. It was observed that contaminations during pruning with soil could increase the amount of copper in the residues. More in detail, every percentage point of soil that winds up on pruning residues involves an increase of 1 mg of Cu every kg of biomass. For this reason, we recommend the use of appropriate systems for the harvest of grapevine residues, particularly mechanical systems that avoid soil lifting. Moreover, we suggest the use of pruning residues preferably in large-scale power plants with appropriate emission filters instead of small-scale domestic boilers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tomato processing involves a significant production of residues, mainly constituted by discarded tomatoes, skins, seeds and pulp. Often, these residues are not valorized and represent an added cost for manufacturing companies because of disposal processes, with environmental issues due to the difficult management. The exploitation of these residual materials results complex as their availability is mainly concentrated in few months. A possible solution is the production of biogas employed in a Combine Heat and Power engine for energy production, in line with the 2020 targets of European Union in terms of promotion of energy from renewable resources and greenhouse gas emission reduction. The tomato by-product utilization for energy production as a strategy to reduce the environmental load of tomato purée was evaluated by means of Life Cycle Assessment. Two scenarios were considered: Baseline Scenario — tomato by-products are sent back to the tomato fields as organic fertilizers; Alternative Scenario — tomato by-products are employed in a nearby biogas plant for energy production. Methane production of tomato by-products was assessed by means of specific laboratory tests. The comparison between the two scenarios highlighted reductions for all the impact categories with the Alternative Scenario. The most important reductions are related to particulate matter (− 5.3%), climate change (− 6.4%) and ozone depletion (− 13.4%). Although small, the reduction of the environmental impact cannot be neglected; for example for climate change, the anaerobic digestion of by-products allows a saving of GHG emissions that, over the whole year, is equal to 1.567 tons of CO 2 eq. The results of this study could be up-scaled to the food industries with high heat demand producing considerable amounts of fermentable by-products employable as feedstock for biogas production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The high heterogeneity of some residual biomasses makes rather difficult their energy use. Their standardisation is going to be a key aspect to get good quality biofuels from those residues. Torrefaction is an interesting process to improve the physical and chemical properties of lignocellulosic biomasses and to achieve standardisation. In the present study torrefaction has been employed on residues and by-products deriving from sunflower production chain, in particular sunflower stalks, husks and oil press cake. The thermal behaviour of these materials has been studied at first by thermogravimetric analysis in order to identify torrefaction temperatures range. Afterwards, different residence time and torrefaction temperatures have been tested in a bench top torrefaction reactor. Analyses of raw and torrefied materials have been carried out to assess the influence of the treatment. As a consequence of torrefaction, the carbon and ash contents increase while the volatilisation range reduces making the material more stable and standardised. Mass yield, energy yield and energy densification reach values of about 60%, 80% and 1.33 for sunflower stalks and 64%, 85% and 1.33 for sunflower oil press cake respectively. As highlighted by the results, torrefaction is more interesting for sunflower stalks than oil cake and husks due to their different original characteristics. Untreated oil press cake and husks, in fact, already show a good high heating value and, for this reason, their torrefaction should be mild to avoid an excessive ash concentration. On the contrary, for sunflower stalks the treatment is more useful and could be more severe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this work is to evaluate the sustainability, in terms of greenhouse gases emission saving, of a new potential bio-ethanol production chain in comparison with the most common ones. The innovation consists of producing bio-ethanol from different types of no-food grapes, while usually bio-ethanol is obtained from matrices taken away from crop for food destination: sugar cane, corn, wheat, sugar beet. In the past, breeding programs were conducted with the aim of improving grapevine characteristics, a large number of hybrid vine varieties were produced and are nowadays present in the Viticulture Research Centre (CRA-VIT) Germplasm Collection. Some of them are potentially interesting for bio-energy production because of their high production of sugar, good resistance to diseases, and ability to grow in marginal lands. Life cycle assessment (LCA) of grape ethanol energy chain was performed following two different methods: i) using the spreadsheet BioGrace, developed within the Intelligent Energy Europe program to support and to ease the Renewable Energy Directive 2009/28/EC implementation; ii) using a dedicated LCA software. Emissions were expressed in CO2 equivalent (CO2eq). These two tools gave very similar results. The overall emissions impact of ethanol production from grapes on average is about 33 g CO2eq MJ-1 of ethanol if prunings are used for steam production and 53 g CO2eq MJ-1 of ethanol if methane is used. The comparison with other bio-energy chains points out that the production of ethanol using grapes represents an intermediate situation in terms of general emissions among the different production chains. The results showed that the sustainability limits provided by the normative are respected to this day. On the contrary, from 2017 this production will be sustainable only if the transformation processes will be performed using renewable sources of energy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of renewable energies as alternative to fossil fuels has value from different points of view and has effects at environmental, social and economic level. These aspects are often connected to each other and together define the overall sustainability of bioenergy. At European level, the Directive 2009/28/EC gives the basic criteria for the estimation of sustainability of biofuels and indicates a minimum threshold of 35% of greenhouse gas saving for a biofuel in order to be considered sustainable. The Directive gives the possibility to identify standard regional values for the cultivation steps that could be utilized for the certification. This paper aims to give a contribution to the definition of these values considering the RED methodology applied to the sunflower cropped in central Italy which is characterized by a hilly landscape and not-irrigated crops. To determine input and output of sunflower cultivation in the central Italy, the results of PROBIO project, carried out by the Authors, were used. The sustainability of biodiesel produced from sunflower grown in central Italy is variable and depends on the nitrogen input and seasonal climatic conditions that affect the yields. The greenhouse gases savings of the Italian chain is 40% in average, greater than the required 35% and would be possible to assign this value as standard to the biofuel chain biodiesel from sunflower cultivated in central Italy. Using an averaged regional standard value guards against the possibility of considering unsustainable harvesting in unfavourable years and seeing it overestimated in the favourable ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main objective of this study is to assess the impact of frozen green bean production and processing. The analysis and relative information collected regards a medium industry located in the south of Marche region (Italy) and the whole production system, from field to industry, is in a range of about 100 km between Marche and Abruzzo regions. The aim of this study is to assess the impact of 1 kg of frozen green bean for two different cultivation protocols for herbicides and pesticides application in order to assess the possible advantages due to shifting to different field treatments. The baseline scenario (A) considers the application of two herbicides (Pendimethalin and Linuron) and two pesticides (Altacor and Azoxystrobin), the alternative scenario (B) considers one herbicides application (Clomazone) and two pesticides (Emamectine and Azoxystrobin). The analysis has been conducted following ISO 14040 and 14044 on Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Product Category Rules for arable crops v. 2.0. LCI (Life Cycle Inventory) and LCIA (Life Cycle Impact Assessment) phase have been performed using LCA software SimaPro® v. 8.2.3.0 with updated databases. The most used databases for this study are Ecoinvent 3 and Agri-footprint, LCI data have been collected through interviews, consulting official documents and company management programs. The system boundaries considered includes crop production, transport to industry plant and industry processing and all the data are referred to 2014 crop season. Crop production LCI considers seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, field activities, yield and relative emissions. Transportations covers distances and payload with empty return. Industry phase considers transformation efficiency, energy, fuels, water. The function of the production chain is to provide frozen green bean, no coproduct or by-product were produced. Residues and product losses from industry processing are managed by anaerobic digestion as waste. Plastics and other wastes from field and industry has been treated by landfill. Data regarding field phase were collected by interviews and consulting official management documents from 43 farms. Data regarding industrial phase have been gathered from automated management systems hardware/software AS/400 (IBM). The LCIA results for 1 kg of frozen green been show an impact of about 0.7 kg of CO2 eq for GWP, 1.9E-4 kg of C2H4 eq kg for PCOP, 3.5E-3 kg of SO2 eq for AP and 1.7E-3 kg of PO43- for EP. The analysis conducted comparing two different solutions of plant protection and herbicides application shows how solution A has a lower impact on ADP, ADP fossil, GWP 100yr, ODP, MEP, PCOP, AP and EP from 0.04% to 11% about. On the other hand, solution B has a lower impact on HTP, FEP, MEP and TEP between 4 and 40%. The analysis conducted shows the impact of frozen green been at industry level representative of medium size processing plant with average technology. The only information available in literature are limited to open field production impact assessment of raw green bean without any kind of industry transformation.. Simply replacing herbicide treatment and one pesticide application, for preventing weed and pest resistance, there is a consistent reduction of impact on different categories for ecotoxicity group without increasing too much the impact on other categories considered. The only exception can be found for ADP category in which the impact of alternative scenario (B) is higher than baseline (A). The reason lies in the lower active ingredient concentration and higher amount of commercial product used for solution B. From the analysis remains evident the contribution on ADP fossil, GWP and ODP due to energy used in industrial phase. On the other side field phase contributes more on ADP, HTP, FEP, AP and EP. • Life cycle assessment of two scenarios for frozen green bean production have been calculated. • Cradle to industry gate approach for a Functional unit of 1 kg of frozen product. • A detailed processes description and relative Inventory have been produced. • A reduction of impact on ecotoxicity is possible replacing pesticides application. • A consistent impact increment was found for abiotic depletion potential resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relevant growth of the wood pellet market in Europe in the last decade led to an increased focus on solid biofuel as a necessary and available renewable resource for energy production. Among biofuels, wooden pellets are among the most widespread for domestic heating. Therefore, monitoring the qualitative properties of commercialized pellets is crucial in order to minimize the amount of harmful emissions in residential areas. Standard ISO 17225 sets threshold values for the chemical and physical properties that commercialized biofuels must fulfil. Specifically, ISO 17225-2 defines that pellets for residential use must be produced from virgin wood, but no method is proposed to assess the actual origin of the material, leading to the risk of the commercialization of pellets made up from chemically treated materials. This study proposes a model obtained via near infrared spectroscopy analyses and chemometrics methods, such as classification, to rapidly assess whether pellets are made up of virgin or chemically treated wood. The result suggests the effectiveness of NIRs for the detection of non-virgin pellets with an accuracy greater than 99%. Furthermore, the model appeared to be accurate in the assessment of both milled and intact pellets, making it a potential in-line instrument for assessments of pellets' quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Tomato manufacturing industry originates substantial amounts of residues. If left without control these residues can constitute an environmental problem. Their energetic use can solve this problem and give added value to the process. In this research physical-chemical characteristics of this biomass and its components are studied to evaluate the possibility of an energy recovery. In general, the dry residues of tomato processing industry are suitable as solid biofuel for energy purposes in large size power plants. The separation of components that constitute tomato residues (peels and seeds) makes sense in case of production and exploitation of oil from tomato seeds. The results can be useful for developing standards on these materials. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Near infrared spectroscopy (NIR) is a technique widely used for the prediction of different chemical-physical features of wood. In this study, the technique was used to assess its potential to predict the mechanical characteristics of wood. Castanea sativa samples of three different European provenances were collected and laboratory tests were performed to assess the mechanical properties of wood samples. Modulus of elasticity (MOE), load-deflection curve and modulus of rupture (MOR) were calculated by using INSTRON machine with three points bending strength with elastic modulus, while density (D) was calculated according to the current standard. Samples were then analysed by means of NIR spectroscopy. The raw spectra were pre-processed and regression models were developed. Variables selection techniques were used to improve the model performance. In detail, MOE regression model returned an error of 696.01 MPa (R2=0.78). Instead, MOR and D prediction models must be further investigated on a wider number of samples considering the high variability in physical characteristics of chestnut wood. The results demonstrated the possibility to use NIR technique for the prediction of the mechanical properties of wood providing useful indications in evaluation-screening processes. Indeed, the presence of the principal wood compounds (cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin) and their influence in the characterisation of mechanical stress reactions were confirmed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently the biodiesel chain is promoted by the European energy policy. For the Italian scenario the sunflower is one of the most important crop to be considered for biodiesel production but the chain is not fully profitable. This problem could be solved with the increase of farm incomes through a proper valorization of by-products. From this point of view the oilseed crop is not considered only for oil production but also for producing multiple products with the same economic value. This is the main inspiring concept of the Extravalore project. The sub-project “Raw Materials” investigated about the possible influence of different agro-technics performed in three distinct geographical environments (Northern, Central and Southern Italy) on the characteristics of by-products obtained from sunflower crop. A national net of experimental tests was set during the 2010–2013 period in order to evaluate the adaptability and the potential production of high oleic sunflower hybrids. 7 seed companies supplied the 20 genotypes assessed in total (18 high oleic hybrids and 2 as control), 11 of them were evaluated all the three years. Achene yields of tested high oleic hybrids were extremely variable: from 2.05 t ha −1 to 4.04 t ha −1 in Northern Italy, from 2.50 t ha −1 to 4.24 t ha −1 in Central Italy and from 2.09 t ha −1 to 2.68 t ha −1 in Southern Italy. For this reason, it was necessary a precise characterization of varieties before their cultivation. The cultivar screening showed general difficulty for high oleic hybrids to reach the performances of achene and oil yields of the conventional ones. In particular, LG55.57HO and PR64H31 resulted the best high oleic cultivars for Northern Italy; many of the high oleic tested cultivars performed well for Central Italy and also for Southern Italy but with a higher variability. The highest potential production was registered in Central Italy; Northern Italy gave decreased but similar results, despite the different latitude; in Southern Italy the productions were 20–30% lower, even with the irrigation support. All high oleic tested cultivars showed oleic acid content in lipid fraction always above the 84% in Central Italy, meaning a stability of the character, very important for the biodiesel production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Extravalore project aims to give added value to oilseed crops, considering them also for producing multiple products with the same economic value and being interesting for the market thanks to their various utilizations. An evaluation of the main cultivars of Brassica napus subsp. oleifera and Brassica carinata has been performed within the project, analyzing them in three Italian locations with different climatic conditions (Palazzolo dello Stella – North Italy, Osimo – Central Italy, Cassibile – South Italy) to assay their adaptability and production potential. During the 2010–2013 period, 43 varieties of rapeseed were evaluated, but only 13 of them for all the period considered; moreover, also 4 varieties of B. carinata were tested. The seed yields of tested cultivars of rapeseed varied a lot among locations, depending also by the seasonal trend. Central Italy was the less disadvantaged by climatic conditions: on average, it was reached a seed yield of 4 t ha −1 , a theoretical oil production of 1.63 t ha −1 and more than 8 t ha −1 of crop residues. In Northern and Southern Italy, if compared with Central Italy values, the seed yields were both lower than 30% and theoretical oil productions lower than 60%; moreover, crop residues in Northern Italy were 12% lower than in Central Italy while in Southern Italy 65% lower. The agronomic behavior of varieties differed a lot among the three experimental areas: DK Expower was the best at North; Albatros, Artoga, Exagone and Excalibur in Central Italy; Excalibur, Zoom and PR46W14 at South Italy but none of them reached a seed yield of 2 t ha −1 . Concerning B. carinata , the cultivars did not give good productions in any of the experimental areas, mainly because of the low oil content in the seeds. Even in Central Italy, where the best results were registered, the seed yield was on average 28% lower than in rapeseed and oil production 10% lower; the crop residues were double than rapeseed. In any case, the valorization of the crop residues is important with a wide range of possible utilization from the direct energetic use to the biochemicals extraction with consequent environmental advantages due to the substitution of dedicated or fossil feedstock with crop residues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study focuses on verifying the influence of some additives in the ash melting process of herbaceous biomass, developing a pelletized biofuel from the mixture of herbaceous biomass and various inorganic substances through a series of experimental tests. Therefore, different materials were sampled, chemically characterized and combined in mixtures of low-melting biomass materials. Tests were performed with various inorganics products added directly on the relative ashes to verify the interaction between the two systems. Subsequently, herbaceous biomass pellets containing growing amounts of additive were produced, verifying their effectiveness by analyzing the ash melting temperatures and adopting the PASSA test, that investigates the size of the ashes after incinerating the biomass in a muffle. The same method was then used to evaluate the ashes of an industrial boiler. Results show that the addition of inorganic additives in the extent of 3–5% by weight determines an increase in deformation temperatures over 547 °C for several biomass materials and additives. Tests carried out on forage pellets made with alfalfa and CaO as additive brought instead to an increase in deformation temperature between 43 and 107 °C. This work could be of interest in the evaluation of the energy reuse of herbaceous materials that would otherwise be considered as waste, and also it suggests the possibility of using egg shells as inorganic additives in accordance to the circular economy approach. Furthermore, the additivation level of these pelletized biofuel is perfectly in line with the provisions of ISO 17225-6 for non-woody pellets (≤5% weight). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]