Investigation of agricultural and animal wastes in Greece and their allocation to potential application for energy production

Abstract

Agricultural and animal wastes constitute a high proportion of biomass in Greece, and are able to play an important role towards the satisfaction of heat and/or energy and related material supply, with respect to the environmental protection targets. This paper describes pyrolysis, gasification and combustion, as a potential agricultural and animal waste exploitation method, and presents a comparison between those treatments when utilized as a source for renewable energy. The aim of the present work was to strengthen the interest in agricultural and animal waste potential for energy production in Greece, through a methodology for the feasibility of utilization of those kinds of wastes as renewable energy resources. A combination of technical, economic and environmental issues is presented here, and focus on the benefits that thermochemical conversion is able to offer, either in investigation or in future technological application for alternative exploitation methods of animal and agricultural wastes.