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In the energy conversion of by-products, the production of biogas and biomethane is of great importance. However, the production of waste products requires an efficient process of abatement and cleaning of the biogas produced and consequently an efficient contaminant monitoring system. In this work activated porous carbon fiber (APCF) is used to make adsorption tubes for the simultaneous sampling of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and volatile methyl siloxanes (VMS) in biogas, two classes of contaminating compounds. the results showed that simultaneous sampling and analysis yielded very good results by allowing the identification and quantification of all target compounds and the identification of more than 50 additional volatile compounds., Proceedings of the 30th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 9-12 May 2022, Online, pp. 626-628

The bioconversion mediated by the larvae of Hermetia illucens (BSFL) is a relative new tool for the recovering of organic matrices, as agro-industrial by-products. The work describes first a regional project (HERMES) aimed at developing a biorefinery model based on the on the activity of larvae of H. illucens. The project intends to exploit: i) the residue of the rearing as well as of the bioconversion process to produce substrate for soil conditioning; ii) the exuvias, dead adults and mature larvae as source of chitin, fatty acids, and proteins. The second part of the work reports the results of a preliminary study on the use of tomato pomace as substrate for bioconversion. Tomato pomace (TP) collected from fruits of four tomato genotypes with modification of peel colour has been analysed in two substrate/diet ratio (SDR): 90:10 and 50:50. Preliminary results indicated that the metabolic activity of the larvae was influenced by the SDR and by the specific composition of the peels (e.g., the presence of different pigment). Germination test with aqueous extracts of the SDRs from the four genotypes did not affect the germination percentage. Notwithstanding the unbalanced composition against carbohydrates, TP may be considered an interesting substrate for composite diets for larvae of H. illucens, Proceedings of the 30th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 9-12 May 2022, Online, pp. 238-243

The management of digestate from agroforestry and food waste has become a challenge for the globally mitigation of economy and environmental impacts. This study is aimed to investigate the proximate and ultimate parameters of digestate sample obtained from zoo-technical digesters, fed with a mix of 70% bovine slurry, 30% corn and by-products. The analysis of characterization was carried out to determine moisture content, elemental composition (C, H, N, S content), metals content, anions content and thermogravimetric analysis. The research would provide a preliminary energy and environmental evaluation of digestate to choose an appropriate technology for its recovery. After characterization, the scientific innovation is represented, therefore, by using the digestate as an energy resource, for example to suggest the digestate conversion to biochar by means thermochemical process (pyrolysis, gasification) as a precursor for porous soil amendment or solid fuels. The main objective of this study was to experiment the potential reuse and sustainable disposal strategy of digestate by an eco-friendlier approach. The results obtained from the physicochemical characterization tests shown that the digestate have a high nutrient concentration as the macro elements (Na, K, Ca) and in average more concentration of microelements for liquid digestate., Proceedings of the 30th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 9-12 May 2022, Online, pp. 200-204

Tomato processing residues can find valuable use both for the recovery of bioactive compounds and for the exploitation in different types of conversion. The work presents the results of the second year of evaluation of peels extracted from tomato lines with S. Marzano type fruit selected for skin color (from light to black-red). The peels were assessed for the content of compounds of different classes: lycopene and .-carotene; chlorogenic acid, quercetin, and rutin; delphinidin, petunidin, and malvidin. Moreover, based on the CHNSO content, through the Buswell’s formula we made an estimation of the theoretical BMP before and after the solvent-extraction of carotenoids. The effect of mutant genes influenced the accumulation of carotenoids and polyphenols in the peels. The genes responsible of the fruit color have been introduced in some modern varieties thus opening the chance to recover specific class of compounds. The data also confirmed the observation of recent studies about the interest in using the exhausted peels for anaerobic digestion., Proceedings of the 30th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 9-12 May 2022, Online, pp. 244-248

Current contaminated soil remediation techniques are either very expensive or extremely difficult. From this point of view, Plant-Assisted BioRemediation (PABR), a technique based on the development of dedicated fast-growing crops (such as poplar), which allows contaminants to be extracted from the soil, assumes great value. The plants in the growth phase are able to extract the contaminants of the soil and to reclaim it, after a certain period of time, in a completely natural and non-invasive way. However, these biomasses and their prunings are considered contaminated products. In a world increasingly aimed at developing a circular economy, it is important to find an effective disposal technique with a low environmental impact. In this study, poplar prunings from PABR and traditional poplar were used and compared in a gasification plant. The metal content in the produced syngas and the ash was compared. It has been observed that most of the heavy metals present accumulate in the ashes which allows to enormously reduce the volume of contaminated material through an energy conversion process., Proceedings of the 29th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 26-29 April 2021, Online, pp. 546-548

Pruning residues can be recovered and valorized as biomass for thermal power plants, partially recovering the costs of processing or even generating profits. Although the commercial machines available are different, most of them produce a low-quality chopped material that is not appreciated by the biofuel market compared to a high quality standard wood chip. To provide a further tool, a new prototype has been developed for the collection of pruning residues, with an innovative cutting system capable of producing a calibrated and dimensionally appreciable product. This study shows the preliminary results obtained during two harvesting tests conducted in vineyards in northern Italy.The new cutting device has proved effective with a homogeneous and calibrated chip size between 35 and 40 mm. Furthermore, the results show a maximum length of the chips greater than 80 mm, with a coarse fraction almost absent (0.18%). Further tests will be carried out to evaluate technical solutions in order to improve the particle size distribution, with particular reference to the fine fraction., Proceedings of the 29th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 26-29 April 2021, Online, pp. 687-690

The European Union alone consumes about 54 million 60 kg bags of coffee per year. As million tons of coffee are used, millions of tons of wastes are generated. In Italy, the per capita annual consumption is about 6 kg and generates over 360,000 tons of coffee grounds, a potentially recoverable raw material that ends up in the waste. It has been verified that coffee grounds can be utilized for many purposes, especially in the agricultural and energy sector to produce compost, biochar and pellet. This work aims at comparing through a statistical analysis specific characteristics of coffee pellets with those of other commercialized pellets to highlight differences in final quality parameters of the fuel., Proceedings of the 29th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 26-29 April 2021, Online, pp. 249-251

Direct combustion of agricultural residues and their use for the energy production in small plants, without emissions abatement systems, represents a relevant source of atmospheric pollution. Particulate matter is certainly one of the main harmful compounds generated by combustion process. PM is dangerous for humans as it is able to penetrate through the respiratory system at various depth levels depending on its aerodynamic diameter. PM is essentially composed of unburnt products, including inorganic species such as metals. Sadly, known practices in agriculture such as “open burning” allow you to quickly solve problems of encumbrance and disposal of agricultural waste, but have a significant negative impact on the human health and atmosphere. The aim of this work was to characterizes, in terms of metals emitted, PM10, PM2.5 and the fraction between 10 and 2.5 generated by a biomass combustion plant with and without multi-cyclonic filter. The results show that the abatement system significantly reduces PM emissions, especially PM10 and the fraction between 10 and 2.5., Proceedings of the 29th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 26-29 April 2021, Online, pp. 1162-1164

The sustainable management of coppice forests and enhancement of crop residues are a resource to be exploited for the development of the wood for energy supply chain. This study focuses on the physical and energetic characterization of oak residues (branches and tops), obtained from a coppice in central Italy. The evaluation indicate how the work system adopted by the company allows to maximize the recovery of wood material, of which the 19.8% is represented by branches and tops. On the other hand, the standardization of wood chips for energy uses set a series of properties that led to fall the material produced in the quality class B1. Summarizing, the results obtained in this work indicate as branches and tops can provide a product for energy production with medium commercial features, providing also information on energy efficiency and possible destinations., Proceedings of the 28th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 6-9 July 2020, Virtual, pp. 128-131

Plant-assisted bioremediation (PABR) represents a green technique for the recovery and remediation of contaminated areas. The biomass produced by these crops is generally considered as a contaminated waste product and potentially harmful. Therefore, it is very important to characterize these biomasses aiming at understanding if they can be treated like traditional biomasses and it is possible to use them in energy conversion process (pyrolysis, gasification, etc.). In this work, the energy conversion processes is simulated through an innovative TGA-DTA analysis using PABR poplar pruning and the emissions are characterized to assess the distribution of the contaminants in the effluent. The TGA-DTA system is interfaced with a particulate filter and a bubbling system for capturing metals. To assess the potential of easily repeatable, small scale TGA-DTA analysis in predicting the main aspects of the gasification process, the results of the experiment are compared with those obtained using the same biomass in a lab-scale fluidized bed gasification (FBG) plant. This comparison showed a good agreement between laboratory tests and those conducted on the real system, confirming that the proposed instrumental apparatus represents an interesting predictive tool for determining the fate of the metals contained in biomass. The analysis also showed that Cd is completely concentrated in the bottom ashes, while as for the other metals, such as Mn, Fe, Cu, Zn, not negligible concentrations are found in the fugitive ashes, e.g. bubbling gases, and then specific metal trapping must be considered in case of PABR gasification., Proceedings of the 28th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 6-9 July 2020, Virtual, pp. 302-305

A sustainable development should turn the large amount of waste produced by the food industry into raw material for other processes. As a residue of tomato industry, the peels can be exploited for the recovery of functional substances or as a substrate in anaerobic digestion or, in perspective, in a possible joint application of both. Aim of the work was to characterize the peels of new tomato lines (with red, orange, pink, black-red and dark-red fruit), for the content of bioactive substances and for some parameters linked to no-food use: chlorophyll, polyphenols and carotenoids content, energy value, theoretical biochemical methane potential (TBMP) through stochiometric method. The peel color mirrored a different content of the bioactive substances: the dark-red fruits showed a significant increase of the carotenoids content, while the peel of the black-red fruits had the highest values of polyphenols. The preferential accumulation of functional compounds influenced the values of the other parameters. The low heating value resulted lower in the variants respect to the control (red fruits) and the percentage of C and H was significantly higher in the red, dark-red and pink fruits. This in turn led to a substantial difference in the estimation of the TBMP., Proceedings of the 27th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 27-30 May 2019, Lisbon, Portugal, pp. 1818-1823

This study reports the concentration level of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) including siloxanes in the biogas produced from sewage sludge in the municipality of Milan, Northern Italy. The obtained biogas was upgraded to biomethane in a pilot scale vacuum swing adsorption (VSA) plant based on activated carbon and zeolite 13X. The produced biomethane was also characterised in order to assess its suitability as automotive fuel. While critical levels were observed in the biogas for of H2S (1570 mg m-3) and HCl (26.8) were observed in biogas, halogenated VOCs and mercaptans were relatively low concentrated. High concentration of total volatile silicon (TVS) was confirmed in sewage sludge biogas, with a major contribution of siloxanes D5 and D4, while trimethylsilanol was below quantitation limit. The suitability of siloxane D5 as an indicator of total siloxanes is discussed. Results of this study demonstrate that siloxanes do not represent a critical issue for the VSA upgrading methodology., Proceedings of the 27th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 27-30 May 2019, Lisbon, Portugal, pp. 137-138

The recent growth in global pellet demand has been driven largely by EU renewable energy targets to cut GHG emissions by 20% compared to 1990 levels by 2020. European policies promoting bioenergy are partly based on analyses showing that increased use of bioenergy can contribute to both energy and climate objectives. The rapid growth of the pellet market has been so remarkable that wood pellets represent one of the largest internationally traded solid biomass commodities. In large-scale biomass supply chains, the increased energy density of pellets reduces costs throughout the supply chain for handling, storage and transport. The present study examined the wood pelletizing process carried out using woody biomass derived from trees cultivated as SRF poplar plantations. In the production process, both whole plants and stems at the third and sixth year of vegetation were utilized as raw material. The quality of the pellets made with the 6-year-old poplar trees is better than those made with the 3-year-old trees, in terms of bulk density, length and ash content. Furthermore, the use of the wood fractions, namely branches, in the production process would seem to influence the physical parameters more than the energetic ones., Proceedings of the 27th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 27-30 May 2019, Lisbon, Portugal, pp. 299-302

Arundo donax (L.) is one of the most important energy crop, but its use in the pyrolysis process have not yet been thoroughly tested. Pyrolysis is a suitable technique to manage residual biomass. One byproduct of the process is the biochar, a carbon-rich residue used in agriculture as soil conditioner. Biomass of Arundo was shredded in order to produce a greater (G) and a smaller (S) particle size distribution (PSD) of the feedstock. Both were gasified in a small scale up-draft reactor at three rates of air flow (0.0007 m3 s-1, 0.001 m3 s-1 and natural draft). Aim of the work was to analyze the effect of different air flow rate and two PSD on the main parameters characterizing the biochar (yield, calorific value, proximate analysis). Results showed that the interaction PSD-air flow has to be set properly to obtain a high-grade biochar. Using a greater PSD, the biochar yield improved (24.3% vs 15.2%) and the LHV was higher than the smaller PSD at 0.0007 m3 s-1, 0.001 m3 s-1. The highest carbon content (90.40%) was obtained with the greater PSD in conditions of natural draft (air almost completely absent). Further studies would be required to identify the upper limit beyond which the process becomes inefficient., Proceedings of the 26th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 14-17 May 2018, Copenhagen, Denmark, pp. 1137-1141

Gasification of biomass is a widely used technique for renewable energy production from agricultural residues that allows both to reduce the environmental impacts of agroforestry sector and to obtain products such as syngas and biochar. The aim of this work is to assess the energy characteristics of syngas obtained from gasification, with air, of olive tree prunings through a downdraft fixed bed reactor. Results showed that the composition of syngas is strongly influenced by the air flow rate. The hydrogen and carbon monoxide contents reached values of about 16%v/v and more than 13%v/v, respectively. The methane content was less than 3%v/v while nitrogen content was more than 50%v/v as consequence of the use of air as oxidizing agent. The lower heating value of syngas ranged between 3.6 MJ Nm-3 and 4.6 MJ Nm-3. The biochar produced during the gasification process showed a carbon content of about 74%w/w. By results of biomass characterization and of gasification tests, it is possible to state that olive tree prunings are a suitable biomass for gasification in downdraft fixed bed reactor and hence for production of syngas and biochar., Proceedings of the 26th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 14-17 May 2018, Copenhagen, Denmark, pp. 728-731

Biomass combustion is a process widely used for heat and power generation through use of different types of plants provided with systems for flue gas cleaning in order to ensure a low environmental impact. Emissions from biomass combustion concern different types of compounds, from CO2, CO, SOX, NOX, particulate matter (PM) to persistent organic pollutants (POPs). Obviously, emissions are linked to the biomass characteristics and to the operating parameters of combustion facility. The aim of this work concerns the evaluation of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs) and polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs) produced from combustion tests of elm and poplar. Results showed that PCDD/Fs and PCBs were lower than 1 pg I-TEQ/Nm3 and these value are very low if compared with those referred to combustion of woody biomass in facilities provided with high efficiency systems for flue gas cleaning., Proceedings of the 26th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 14-17 May 2018, Copenhagen, Denmark, pp. 606-609

This paper reports the improvement obtained by natural zeolites for anaerobic digestion of the organic fraction of municipal solid waste and cattle manure. A full scale multi-stage reactor was used for the tests. A first dry stage was used for hydrolysis and acidogenesis, equipped with a leachate accumulation and recirculation unit. Leachate is then continuously directed to a second wet stage, in which methanogenesis and biogas production occur. The obtained wastewater presents a low organic content and might be recirculated in the leachate collection tank: however, ammonia level must be preliminary reduced. For this purpose, natural zeolites were tested as a valid alternative to currently used approaches. The obtained water has a low nitrogen content and could be continuously be recirculated without leading to inhibition phenomena. When saturated, natural zeolites are added to the compost obtained from the solid residue of the first dry stage, improving its slow release of water and ammonia into the soil. The plant was monitored for 80 days: no ammonia inhibition was observed, the concentration of this compound being always below 320 mg/L., Proceedings of the 25th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 12-15 June 2017, Stockholm, Sweden, pp. 932-934

Harvesting of Jatropha (Jatropha curcas L.) is a challenging issue owing to the presence of ripe and unripe fruits on the same bunch. Although widely diffused,the manual collection is labor-demanding. Several machines for fully mechanized harvesting are available, but their sustainability is debatable. The use of a semi-mechanical approach can be an affordable solution. Within the 4-year demonstration project JatroMed, CREA-ING analyzed modified pickers mounting different type of rake. A first study carried out in Morocco was aimed at analyzing the applicability of the method and evaluating the efficiency of different combinations rake/beating speed. A commercial olive picker with pneumatic system was used. Two beating's speeds (S1 and S2) per three different rakes (R1, R2 and R3) were tested on cultivar Michoacan in order to determine the most suitable combination to harvest jatropha fruits. The number of fallen leaves was adopted as discriminating parameter for identifying the less damaging combination. Then the best rake-speed combination was tested also on JCL Max, QVP and Mali varieties.All the treatments (rake/speed) allowed to harvest the ripe fruits of the cultivar Michoacán. However, the combination R1-S1 showed the lowest number of fallen leaves and the treatment R3-S2 assured the highest percentage of unfallen unripe fruits. From these first evidences emerges that the semi-mechanical harvesting through rakes is suitable for the collection of ripe fruits of Jatropha and it is independent from the type of rake used. For a selective harvest, however, the integration of the system with the physiological traits of the variety is highlydesirable., Proceedings of the 24th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 6-9 June 2016, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, pp. 143-146

The biomass of giant reed (Arundo donax L.) can be used as fuel for combustion, but some problems may arise during the conversion process. In fact, the residues deriving from combustion have determined characteristics that may compromise the functionality of traditional power plants. In particular, the ash content and ash fusion point are respectively much higher and lower compared with that of traditional lignocellulosic crops such as poplar, eucalyptus, etc.. Different studies have been already performed worldwide in order to determine energetic potential and ash characteristics of giant reed. However, the results of these works indicate in many cases different values and discordant opinions, creating some doubts about the real potential and the real risks of this fuel. The aim of this study was to investigate the ash and energy features of arundo biomass in order to furnish evidence of the energy potential as well as the limits of this energy source., Proceedings of the 23rd European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 1-4 June 2015, Vienna, Austria, pp. 193-194

This paper represents the result of an accurate analysis of biomass thermal conversion process that allowed the development of a biomass combustion mathematical model. It is part of a more extensive work that concerns the study and the characterization of biomass combustion process. The aim of the work can be reassumed in the following points: 1) development of a mathematical model to simulate biomass combustion, 2) abatement of pollutant emission through highlighting correlations among combustion process parameters, biomass characteristics (chemical and physical) and mechanisms of pollutant formation, 3) combustion investigation over a wide plant biomass collection, 4) development of more efficient combustion and energy recovery systems. In such a part of work, a two 2-D steady-state model of biomass packed bed combustion is presented. It considers thermal conversion of biomass in a moving grate furnace. The model takes into account moisture evaporation, devolatilization of volatile matter, char combustion, gas fluid dynamics in porous bed, convective, conductive and radiative heat transfer. Composition and velocity field of gas phase above the biomass bed are presented. These results are structured to be used in a multidimensional CFD model of gas phase combustion., Proceedings of the 20th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 18-22 June 2012, Milan, Italy, pp. 1276-1285

The two phases harvesting methodology allows to manage and schedule the chipping operations as in function of moisture content of the stored biomass. In this study we evaluated the loss of moisture of medium rotation forestry plantations, considering four different times of cut. The results obtained have shown the possibility to reach, during the first days of June, humidity levels between 36 and 45% by felling down the plants between December and mid March., Proceedings of the 22nd European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 23-26 June 2014, Hamburg, Germany, pp. 321-323

Generally, the stumps removal from an end-of-life orchard is a time consuming work that requires high management costs. Despite these problems, the operation is necessary for restoring suitable soil conditions for arboreal or herbaceous crops. Stumps can be removed from the soil using different methods, i.e. they can be crushed on-site through the infield comminution using tractor mounted drills or extracted with excavators or rotor stumps extractors. This study consists of two independent parts: the first part is focused on the comparison of the work performed by a stump puller prototype and a traditional excavator. Both machines were used for a stump harvesting test carried out in a pear orchard of Northern Italy. The second part of the study deals with the energetic characterization of the extracted roots. Considering the bio-energy potential of agricultural residues, the goal of the work is to show the performance of an innovative mechanization system for raw material supply, but at the same time it is intended to show the stump energy potential in the agro-energy chain., Proceedings of the 22nd European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 23-26 June 2014, Hamburg, Germany, pp. 221-223

The aim of this work was to evaluate the storage effects and the fuel quality of wood chips produced from two different parts of poplar trees (Populus x canadensis M.): stem and crown. The material separation has allowed monitoring the storage behaviour of the two chip kinds in an independent way, evaluating which type of product would respond better to the degradation effects of storage. The fuel quality was evaluated through chemical and physical analysis as according to European standards. The internal heat development was very similar in the piles of the same material. In contrast, temperature patterns were very much different between the two treatments. Results showed that chips from crown material had better storage properties and exhibited lower decay than chips from stem wood., Proceedings of the 22nd European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 23-26 June 2014, Hamburg, Germany, pp. 324-328

The giant reed (Arundo donax L.) is suitable for different bioenergy chains, and its specific characteristics may be affected by the harvest period and the storage system. The aim of the study was to investigate the effect of alternative storage systems on the characteristics of chopped Arundo. Open air storage (piles) were compared with unconventional solutions supplied with o without forced aeration system, tested on small scale into plastic containers (bins). During the storage (one month), the temperature of each treatment was constantly monitored using probes and moisture content was measured over time by periodic sampling. The remarkable difference among the conditioned bin and the control bin or the open pile was the behavior of temperatures in the first 10 days, when the moisture inside the ventilated bins has fallen about 50 percentage points, while in the other two the decrease observed did not exceed 20%. The rapid lowering of the moisture content in the ventilated bins restricted the dry matter losses to 14.28% after a month, well below the values (higher than 40%) registered for the other treatments. In the view of preserving the Arundo biomass for supplying different kind of bioenergy processes this study has furnished some clues on the relation storage/final use of the biomass., Proceedings of the 22nd European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 23-26 June 2014, Hamburg, Germany, pp. 292-294

The present work shows the principal storage methods tested by the CRA-ING research unit on SRF comminuted poplar and the preliminary results of a new test made on wood chips coming from different tree portions of traditional poplar plantations. The storage trials were performed outdoor creating woodchips piles of similar dimension. These were exposed to different storage conditions affecting the microbial degradations phenomena and the chemical reactions occurred. The storage dynamics inside the heaps of SRF chips were evaluated by testing different air circulation rate (ventilated vs compacted piles), different size of the chips (piles built with small chips vs large chips), and the influence on pile coverage (covered vs uncovered piles). In all case, the effects of storage on fuel quality were evaluated with respect to moisture content, gross and net calorific value, chemical composition, dry matter losses, and ash content., Proceedings of the 21st European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 3-7 June 2013, Copenhagen, Denmark, pp. 170-172

The article presents a 2-D steady state mathematical model developed to simulate woody biomass combustion in moving grate furnaces. The model simulates: moisture evaporation, devolatilization of volatile matter and char formation, heterogeneous reactions of char, mass and heat transfer between solid and gas phase and bed shrinkage. The model gives as results the contour of the mass concentration of moisture, char and ash along the grate. Furthermore, mass concentration, temperature and velocity field of gas phase above the biomass bed are calculated and structured to be used in a multidimensional CFD model of gas phase combustion. The model provides a significant insight into the various phenomena that occur during biomass thermal conversion and their correlation between the operational condition and biomass characteristics. Thus, the present model can be used as instrument for furnaces design and for the optimization of the existing ones., Proceedings of the 21st European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 3-7 June 2013, Copenhagen, Denmark, pp. 1118-1124

Nowadays, from a quantitative point of view, the woody biomass represents the most important source for energy production. For these reasons, "CRA-ING" is carrying different kinds of storage experiments on chipped poplar coming from Short Rotation Forest plantations (SRF). The experimentation aims to compare the physical characteristics of six chip piles stored using two different methods. In the first one, chips have been covered by a geo¬textile sheet; in the second the woody material remained uncovered. Furthermore, the CRA-ING has analyzed six piles having chips of difference size. Three of them were obtained using the self propelled forage harvester; the others three obtained using the same machine equipped with experimental rotor developed by our institute. The experimental tests have been carried out with the aim to evaluate the variation of the chips physical parameters occurred during the two different storage method. In addition was aimed to analyze storage efficiency due to chips size. In conclusion, the final result of the experimentation demonstrated the possibility to improve the quality of the chips increasing their size as well as that it is possible to obtain an efficient and economic storage system through the uncovered pile., Proceedings of the 20th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 18-22 June 2012, Milan, Italy, pp. 432-434

Fuel storage is one of the key-point in the biomass energy chain. For instance, it permits to guarantee plants’ supply and get a lower moisture content of the material. Unfortunately, during storage dry matter losses and related energy content losses, occurs. Chips’ size can affect the amount of these losses: more the chips are small, more is the exposed surface, and more an higher dry matter losses can be expected. In Italy not many research experiences on poplar wood chips’ storage were carried out. The main target of this research is to evaluate if, in northern Italy conditions and with the same species (poplar), there is correlation between chip size and dry matter losses during storage in open piles.. The most common SRF poplar harvester, the Calla Jaguar, has a chipping apparatus (rotor) projected to maize chipping for silage, thus the necessity to develop a new chipping apparatus for poplar in order to produce bigger size chips raised. CRA-ING projected and built a new rotor, and the machine during 08/09 winter harvested about 350 ha. Then, two uncovered piles of wood chips obtained by Claas Jaguar fitted with commercial and CRA ING rotor were built. The internal temperature were monitored continuously, using Pt100 devices at different positions, while moisture content behavior and dry matter losses was evaluated after six months of storage and compared to the initial values. A meteo device recorded air temperature and moisture, wind speed and solar radiation. As previously thought, results show a better drying process and less dry matter losses for the fuel produced by the CRA-ING rotor, confirming that chips’ size is really important to save dry matter and stored energy, even if the driest product is tha t one obtained by commercial rotor. Considerations about energy content, energy lost for drying (the “cost” of storage) and economical aspects related to moisture content Vs. energy losses are reported too., Proceedings of the 18th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 3-7 May 2010, Lyon, France, pp. 397-401