Title:
The Sustainability Assessment of Biomass Plant and Biorefineries for Regional and National Policies
Author(s):
Marazza, D., Contin, A.
Document(s):
Paper
Abstract:
This work has been committed by the Energy Department of the Emilia-Romagna Region (Italy) with the goal of improving the policies of the regional authority, addressing both the use of biomasses for energy production and a wider use in a biorefinery perspective. An assessment scheme and the related policies have been proposed. Seven criteria, eight indexes and two recommendations have been selected and elaborated in order to meet fifteen objectives. The criteria and indexes include greenhouse gases savings, use of wastes, short range procurement, biodiversity, water footprint, biorefinery, regional economic impact and energy efficiency. The scheme has been applied to the following value chains considered as representative of the regional economy: palm oil, rapeseed, biogas from maize, biogas from wet manure, bio-methane from maize-biogas and bio-methane from manure. On the basis of the scores assigned to the categorized value chains, it was possible to establish undesired categories of plants, an acceptance area and a desired area of plants and projects to promote. The results showed that the GHG savings are above the standard set by the Renewable Energy Directive 2009/28/CE (RED) for the large majority of the cases. The biogas solution gets the highest score for GHG savings as well as for the land use efficiency and biodiversity stewardship. Nonetheless the study revealed inefficient heat recovery systems in most of the facilities and a large gap with respect to a full exploitation of the biomass to produce biofuels and high added value compounds and biochemicals.
Keywords:
assessment, greenhouse gases (GHG), sustainability, policies, social acceptance, water footprint
Topic:
Biomass Policies, Markets and Sustainability
Subtopic:
Sustainability assessment and criteria
Event:
20th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition
Session:
5DO.1.5
Pages:
2067 - 2074
ISBN:
978-88-89407-54-7
Paper DOI:
10.5071/20thEUBCE2012-5DO.1.5
Price:
FREE
