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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]

Background: The production of seeds for horticultural crops has seen a steady growth since 2006. Onion is one of the most widespread crops that followed this trend until 2013, undergoing a slight decline in 2016. Even though these crops are characterized by high economic value, they present some important issues such as high costs and labor required by some operations such as threshing. The purpose of this study is the evaluation of a patented and dedicated system for mechanical threshing throughout the evaluation of seed quality parameters. Methods: The study was conducted comparing seed samples mechanically threshed obtained from 12 companies and samples of the same batches manually threshed to determine the maximum qualitative potential. The chosen terms for comparison are the most important qualitative parameters included within ISTA standards for seed evaluation. Results: The mechanically threshed seeds show lower values for all the considered quality parameters compared to those found in the control samples. In the same way, there is also greater variability. Conclusions: The introduction of the dedicated mechanical systems allows the reduction of seed processing time while maintaining the quality standards within the limits of merchantability, but for obtaining higher standards, further analysis is necessary. [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]

Moisture content is the most relevant quality parameter for wood fuels. Effective and fast determination of moisture of incoming feedstock is essential in the management of bioenergy facilities. The availability of fast and reliable moisture meters based on innovative technologies simplifies this task. However, in Mediterranean conditions the inherent variability of wood fuels calls for a careful sampling strategy if representative results are required while facing acceptable analytic costs. The present study is aimed at measuring the fuel heterogeneity and defining accordingly the appropriate number of samples to be analyzed in order to get reliable moisture-content results. A total of 70 truckloads (about 2270 t of woodchips) were sampled during commercial operations in two different seasons. Five samples were collected from each load and measured with standard method and magnetic resonance gauge. Results show that the variability of moisture content is influenced by mixing of species and storage of biomass. Heterogeneity can vary greatly also within single truckloads, to the point that three samples are needed to achieve about 90% of estimates within the desired precision limits. In the case of larger lots, such as barge or ship loads, 20 samples can provide sufficient precision in most scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sunflower is one of the most important oilseed crops cultivated in the world for different purposes. In Italy, the production is mostly located in the central area, representing 70% of Italian production. The market demand for sunflower oil is higher than the national production. There is an increasing request for cold pressed sunflower oil for food application. The success of this activity is linked to a correct setting up and management of the production and supply chain with a valorization of products and by-products. To this aim, information is needed, and this paper is focused on the cultivation of sunflower in central Italy using suitable hybrids, as well as on the study of the cold extraction performance of the sunflower seed produced and the quality of by-products and residues. Results indicate that, on average, a range of about 1.0–1.5 t ha−1 of cold pressed oil and different amounts of by-products can be obtained. According to a proposed scenario, 30 ha cultivated with sunflower are needed to create a complete supply chain within the farm, avoiding many additional passages and maintaining all the value for the farmer. It is important to use suitable hybrids for obtaining good yield, but also the cold extraction performances are important because they also affect the quality of by-products and residues that can be valorized themselves to improve sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]