Abstract
The delivery of biomass products from the production place to the point of final use is of fundamental importance within the constitution of energy chains based on biomass use as renewable energy source. In fact, transport can be one of the most economically expensive operations of the entire biomass energy production process. In this work, a geographic identification, through remote sensing and photo-interpretation, of the different biomass sources was used to estimate the potential available biomass for energy in a small-scale supply chain. The economic sustainability of transport costs was calculated for different types of biomass sources available close to a biomass power plant of a small-scale energy supply chain, in central Italy. The proposed analysis allows us to highlight and visualize on the map the areas of the territory characterized by greater economic sustainability in terms of lower transport costs of residual agroforestry biomass from the collection point to the final point identified with the biomass power plant. The higher transport cost was around € 40 Mg−1, compared to the lowest of € 12 Mg−1.
Highlights
The interest in the use of renewable energies and bioenergy is always increasing on a planetary level, especially about the decisive role that they can play in terms of contrasting the climate changes taking place in substitution of fossil fuels considered the most responsible of greenhouse gas emissions [1,2,3]
The load/unload time is highest in Complex Cultivation Patterns (CCP) class with 1.65 h, followed by land mainly occupied by agriculture (LOA) and VIY with 1.61 h, while green urban area (GUA) requires the lowest time of 1.44 h
Instead, there is a greater homogeneity of results for the classes Fruit Trees and berry Plantation (FTP), olive grove (OGR), CCP and LOA
Summary
The interest in the use of renewable energies and bioenergy is always increasing on a planetary level, especially about the decisive role that they can play in terms of contrasting the climate changes taking place in substitution of fossil fuels considered the most responsible of greenhouse gas emissions [1,2,3]. The logistical organization of these supply chains represents one of the priority aspects on which most of the impacts (economic, occupational, environmental, etc.) depend, and of the real convenience to the production of primary energy from agroforestry biomass. Among the cost items of the energy supply chain, transport certainly represents a key element that heavily affects the economic and environmental sustainability of the energy supply and production chain [7]. In this sense, the short energy chain and the priority enhancement of the biomasses spread throughout the territory in the vicinity of the transformation plant, represent the basis for a sustainable development of bioenergy [8]
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