Model for the economic, energy and environmental evaluation in biomass productions

Abstract

In the near future, renewable energies will have a decisive role to play in attempts to achieve the ambitious objectives fixed by the European Union. Consequently, not only the economic aspect but also energy and environmental issues of agroenergy chains (AEC) must be carefully evaluated. Software (SE3A) able to assess economic, energy and environmental performance of AEC has been developed. The aim of this paper is to present SE3A and show its usefulness in evaluating different AEC and/or different technical solutions. For the moment, the analysis is restricted to: i) field and ii) post-harvest (transport/storage) phases of the AEC. As an example of SE3A flexibility, economic, energy and environmental costs (EEE costs) related to the cultivation technique used in northern Italy for the poplar short rotation coppice were evaluated.

Keywords

• biomass, energy, chain-supply, sustainability, model, short rotation coppice.