In Italy, biomass may potentially cover a significant percentage (up to 10%) of the total domestic annual energy request (200 Mtoe -Million tons oil equivalent -), reducing fossil fuels import and GHG emission. Traditionally, the most important biomass is represented by fuelwood (22 Mt), prevalently used in rural households for thermo energy production. The industrial use of woody biomass, for thermo and/or electric conversion, has rapidly increased in the last 10 years with an estimated annual wood request between 2.2-4.5 Mt. A very small part of this raw wood material is supplied by plantations of fast growing trees (poplars, willows, robinia and eucalypts), established by farmers on agricultural lands, and intensively managed, as coppice plantations, with short rotation harvesting cycles (2-5 years) . Specific public grants have supported the Italian farmers to establish ca. 6000-7000 ha of bioenergy plantations, mostly on alluvial soils in northern-continental Italy, using Italian clones of poplar hybrid. Cultural operations are fully mechanized, from plantation establishment up to the biomass harvesting. The most used clones are Monviso, Orion, AF2, Oglio, Sirio and Pegaso with yields in experimental trials reaching more than 20 d.m. ha-1y-1; yield figures are strongly variable according to site fertility and management intensity, with water being the main limiting factor. Long term trials showed slightly decreasing yields after 4 biennial coppicing cycles. Yields in commercial poplar SRC plantations are much lower in comparison to experimental tests, mostly because recommended cultural operations, such as fertilization and irrigation, are rarely applied by farmers for lowering production costs. In most of the cases, the profitability of bioenergy plantations for farmers is currently connected to the public grants. Economic simulations demonstrated interesting profitability for farmers' cooperatives selling the electric energy obtained by their own produced biomass. Research on bioenergy plantations for phytoremediation is emerging as a new technology for the decontamination of polluted sites and for the production of clean biomass throughout rhizo-degradation. In the last few years, the chaotic deployment of biogas plants, using biomass from dedicated annual energy crops, is altering dramatically the potentiality of SRC in Italy. This woody crop should be much more supported by public Institutions for its environmental advantages. Poplar SRC is a demanding crop for the prevailing Italian pedo-climatic conditions; other tree species, more adapted to marginal soils, should be developed at research level with breeding programs.
Poplar bioenergy cultivation in Italy: current status. Which future?
Pierluigi Paris
2013
Abstract
In Italy, biomass may potentially cover a significant percentage (up to 10%) of the total domestic annual energy request (200 Mtoe -Million tons oil equivalent -), reducing fossil fuels import and GHG emission. Traditionally, the most important biomass is represented by fuelwood (22 Mt), prevalently used in rural households for thermo energy production. The industrial use of woody biomass, for thermo and/or electric conversion, has rapidly increased in the last 10 years with an estimated annual wood request between 2.2-4.5 Mt. A very small part of this raw wood material is supplied by plantations of fast growing trees (poplars, willows, robinia and eucalypts), established by farmers on agricultural lands, and intensively managed, as coppice plantations, with short rotation harvesting cycles (2-5 years) . Specific public grants have supported the Italian farmers to establish ca. 6000-7000 ha of bioenergy plantations, mostly on alluvial soils in northern-continental Italy, using Italian clones of poplar hybrid. Cultural operations are fully mechanized, from plantation establishment up to the biomass harvesting. The most used clones are Monviso, Orion, AF2, Oglio, Sirio and Pegaso with yields in experimental trials reaching more than 20 d.m. ha-1y-1; yield figures are strongly variable according to site fertility and management intensity, with water being the main limiting factor. Long term trials showed slightly decreasing yields after 4 biennial coppicing cycles. Yields in commercial poplar SRC plantations are much lower in comparison to experimental tests, mostly because recommended cultural operations, such as fertilization and irrigation, are rarely applied by farmers for lowering production costs. In most of the cases, the profitability of bioenergy plantations for farmers is currently connected to the public grants. Economic simulations demonstrated interesting profitability for farmers' cooperatives selling the electric energy obtained by their own produced biomass. Research on bioenergy plantations for phytoremediation is emerging as a new technology for the decontamination of polluted sites and for the production of clean biomass throughout rhizo-degradation. In the last few years, the chaotic deployment of biogas plants, using biomass from dedicated annual energy crops, is altering dramatically the potentiality of SRC in Italy. This woody crop should be much more supported by public Institutions for its environmental advantages. Poplar SRC is a demanding crop for the prevailing Italian pedo-climatic conditions; other tree species, more adapted to marginal soils, should be developed at research level with breeding programs.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
