Life cycle assessment of bioenergy production from orchards woody residues in Northern Italy

Boschiero, Martina; Cherubini, Francesco; Nati, Carla; Zerbe, Stefan

doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.09.094

Cited by 59 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…Notably, we did not consider the whole logistic chain; however, the harvesting process is the most energy-and costs-consuming among all the steps (harvesting, storage, short transportation distance) [32,38]. Therefore, the improvement in the harvesting process efficiency is a key point to increase the energetic balance, economic value, and environmental profits, which have been an area of interest in other studies related to this issue [50][51][52].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Influence of the Use of Windrowers in Baler Machinery on the Energy Balance during Pruned Biomass Harvesting in the Apple Orchard

Dyjakon

2018

Energies

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The effective operation of machinery in agricultural processes is crucial in terms of energy efficiency, economic consequences, and environmental footprint. The agricultural sector provides many opportunities to bring biomass to the market. An interesting option is to collect the branches after a regular pruning of apple orchards in the winter-spring season. As the harvesting of pruning residues in apple orchards for energy purposes demands additional primary energy, any measures that increase the amount of collected biomass are desirable. In this study, the influence of pruning harvesting using a baler with and without windrowers on pruning biomass yield, energy input and output flow, energy balance, CO 2 emission reduction, and costs of that operation in apple orchards was investigated. The performed analysis, based on the results from two apple orchards, revealed that the energy balance was positive for both variants. However, in comparison with the harvesting process without windrowers, the use of windrowers in these two orchards caused an increase in pruning biomass yield by 0.45 tDM·ha −1 per year (25%) and 0.54 tDM·ha −1 per year (33%), respectively. The energy balance increased up by ca. 0.8-1.0 GJ·ha −1 , although the fuel consumption by the tractor was higher. The use of windrowers did not significantly increase the costs, but resulted in remarkably better income from biomass selling (ca. €30-40 ha −1 ). Finally, the increase in the mass of harvested biomass led to a higher potential CO 2 emission reduction. As a result, pruning biomass is an attractive source of energy, especially for local markets.Energies 2018, 11, 3236 2 of 15 than 60% of the current renewable energy production in the EU-28, and the majority is sourced from solid biomass [5]. Due to the numerous advantages of using biomass, much attention has been paid to developing advanced technologies to enable its conversion to energy and fuels. The main source of solid biomass is forestry [6], but significant amounts are produced by agriculture as well, including energy crops and agricultural residues [7]. Agricultural residues can be divided into three main groups: primary crop residues, secondary crop residues, and animal farming residues. Primary crops residues are produced on the field (like straw, prunings, and other cuttings). Secondary crop residues are generated during processing of harvested products (like pomace or sunflower husks). Animal farming residues are produced during animal breeding (like manure).Primary crops residues require collection using suitable machinery [8,9]. Agriculture residues are generally collected in the form of round bales, square bales, or in their chopped form [10]. As a result, there is a demand for additional energy for recovery, harvesting, processing, storage, and transportation to prepare such biomass for energy purposes [11,12]. The limited season for harvesting crop residues results in seasonal supply of agriculture-based biomass [13]. Among the crop residues, the seasonal pruning of fruit orchards r...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Influence of the Use of Windrowers in Baler Machinery on the Energy Balance during Pruned Biomass Harvesting in the Apple Orchard

Dyjakon

2018

Energies

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“…al. (2013) reports a net calorific value of orchard wood from 14.5 to 19.4 MJ/kg, and similarly Boschiero et al (2016) 19.03 MJ/kg. Walg (2007), for example, studied the net calorific value of grapevine wood and he set the value (Manzone et al 2016).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…2.5 kg per tree, which represents about 1,000 kg/ha. Likewise, Boschiero et al (2016) discloses the production value from fruit trees wood mass in the value of 1,030 kg/ha.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Review of energy potential of the wood biomass of orchards and vineyards in the Czech Republic

Burg¹,

Mašán²,

Martin³

et al. 2017

Res. Agric. Eng.

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Burg P., Mašán V., Dušek M., Zemánek P., Rutkowski K. (2017): Review of energy potential of the wood biomass of orchards and vineyards in the Czech Republic. Res. Agr. Eng., 63 (Special Issue): S1-S7.The most important sources of biomass energy are currently coming from agricultural activity. A sizeable portion in production areas is waste wood after the winter cut of orchards and vineyards, which cover areas exceeding 30,000 ha in the Czech Republic. The most important are species like apples, peaches, apricots, plums, sweet cherries, sour cherries and grapevines. Average production of wood mass for individual species of fruit trees and grapevines ranges from 1,540 kg/ha up to 6,762 kg/ha, i.e. 1.5 t/ha to 6.8 t/ha. The calorific value for these species ranges from 14.70 to 16.39 MJ/kg, with moisture between 6 and 8%. The results show that the total measured energy potential of the fruit species-cultivated areas is 1,469.7 TJ for the whole Czech Republic.

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“…Various publications have addressed the GHG emissions of bioenergy produced from residual biomass reporting potential GHG savings in comparison to reference systems, for example woody biomass residues from Italian orchards (Boschiero et al, 2016), forest residues in the UK (Whittaker et al, 2011) and cattle manure (de Azevedo et al, 2017). Several studies compare the climate impacts of biomass usage for different forms of bioenergy or biomaterials.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Life cycle greenhouse gas benefits or burdens of residual biomass from landscape management

Pfau¹,

Hanssen

Straatsma

et al. 2019

Journal of Cleaner Production

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The use of residual biomass for the production of bioenergy and biomaterials is often suggested as a strategy to avoid negative effects associated with dedicated biomass production. One potential source is biomass from landscape management. The goal of this study was to find the lowest net greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of various applications of residual biomass from landscape management. GHG balances of thirteen residual biomass applications were calculated and compared to their respective conventional counterfactuals. As a case study, the potential contribution to climate change mitigation through the use of residual biomass available from vegetation management in floodplains of the Dutch Rhine delta were quantified. The greatest GHG benefits are achieved when using woody biomass to produce heat (-132 kg CO2-eq./ tonne wet biomass) and grassy biomass to produce growth media (-229 kg CO2-eq./tonne wet biomass). In contrast, composting grassy biomass for fertiliser replacement on agricultural fields results in the largest GHG burdens of 62 kg CO2-eq. / tonne wet biomass. The findings imply that residual biomass from landscape management can contribute to both GHG benefits and burdens, depending on the application. Higher benefits were found for bioenergy than for biomaterial applications. Biomass applications should be chosen with care and consideration of their counterfactuals.

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Life cycle assessment of bioenergy production from orchards woody residues in Northern Italy

Cited by 59 publications

References 38 publications

The Influence of the Use of Windrowers in Baler Machinery on the Energy Balance during Pruned Biomass Harvesting in the Apple Orchard

The Influence of the Use of Windrowers in Baler Machinery on the Energy Balance during Pruned Biomass Harvesting in the Apple Orchard

Review of energy potential of the wood biomass of orchards and vineyards in the Czech Republic

Life cycle greenhouse gas benefits or burdens of residual biomass from landscape management

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