Abstract
The current concerns on global energy security, climate change, and environmental pollution represent some of the major elements of the growing interest on renewable energy. In this framework agro-food energy systems are at the center of a twofold debate: on the one hand they represent a key option for energy production while on the other their sustainability is threatened by the expansion of the bioenergy market that could lead to negative social and environmental consequences. The aim of this work is to evaluate—through a case study—the technical and economic feasibility of the replacement of energy crops (ECs) with used cooking oil (UCO) in an anaerobic digestion (AD) full-scale plant. At this purpose, a full-scale plant performing AD was monitored for two years. Three scenarios were developed and compared to evaluate the impacts and the potential benefits in terms of land saving in case of a substitution of ECs with UCO. Results highlighted a reduction of land use of over 50% if UCO is introduced in co-digestion with ECs. The lack of an appropriate legislative framework limits the utilization of used cooking oils (UCOs) in AD with a consequently missed opportunity for biogas owners that could find an important alternative in UCO.
Highlights
IntroductionThe global energy demand is growing under the pressure of the current context of increasing food demand, diffusion of diets based on products with a high density of energy (livestock products, vegetable oils, sugar), globalization of food production and trade, growing intensity of agricultural practices, competition on land use, exacerbation of global warming, and environmental concerns [1,2,3]
The global energy demand is growing under the pressure of the current context of increasing food demand, diffusion of diets based on products with a high density of energy, globalization of food production and trade, growing intensity of agricultural practices, competition on land use, exacerbation of global warming, and environmental concerns [1,2,3].These factors are leading national governments and the international community to increase the support and the investments to stimulate a reduction from the dependency on fossil fuels and a transition to a low-carbon society [4,5,6]
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Summary
The global energy demand is growing under the pressure of the current context of increasing food demand, diffusion of diets based on products with a high density of energy (livestock products, vegetable oils, sugar), globalization of food production and trade, growing intensity of agricultural practices, competition on land use, exacerbation of global warming, and environmental concerns [1,2,3] These factors are leading national governments and the international community to increase the support and the investments to stimulate a reduction from the dependency on fossil fuels and a transition to a low-carbon society [4,5,6]. This work focuses on AD due to its rapid development in several EU (European Union) countries—including Italy—as a consequence of high renewable energy subsidies [13]
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