Suchergebnisse

Le innovazioni nel campo della meccanica agricola hanno avuto un ruolo fondamentale nella storia economica di ogni Paese. Oggi più che mai è necessario investire nello sviluppo delle tecnologie per soddisfare la domanda crescente di beni alimentari da parte della popolazione del pianeta. Un importante convegno, organizzato dal Club of Bologna nell'ambito di EXPO 2015, ha prodotto una "Carta per la meccanizzazione" inserita in modo organico all'interno della Carta di Milano che rappresenta l'eredità "politica" di EXPO 2015. ; Innovations in the field of agricultural mechanical engineering have played a fundamental role in the economic histories of all countries. Today more than ever it is necessary to develop technologies to satisfy the growing demand for food goods for the populations of the planet. An important conference organized by the Club of Bologna in the setting of the EXPO 2015 Universal Exposition produced the Mechanization Charter to become an integral part of the Charter of Milan, the cultural legacy of EXPO 2015 Milan.

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.

In the near future, the role that renewable energies can play in order to achieve the ambitious objectives fixed by the European Union is decisive. Besides economic aspect also energetic and environmental issues of agro-energy chains must be carefully evaluated. We developed a software tool able to assess economic, energetic and environmental performance of renewable energy from biomass. The aim of this paper is present the software and its application about one of the most promising energy crop in Italy: Short Rotation Coppice (SRC) based on poplar clones. SRC, subdivided into SRF – plantation with a short cutting frequency (1 or 2 yrs) and in MRF – plantation with a medium cutting time (5 yrs), takes up about 7,000 hectares in Italy. Twenty years after their introduction, in bibliography the information concerning this crop is not always clear and unanimous. On the basis of the cultivation technique carried out in Northern Italy, an economic, energetic and environmental (EEE) evaluation of the poplar SRC (SRF and MRF) has been carried out. The analysis is focused on field and transport phases of the agro-energy chain.

The interest in renewable energy sources has gained great importance in Europe due to the need to reduce fossil energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, as required by the Renewable Energy Directive (RED) of the European Parliament. The production of energy from energy crops appears to be consistent with RED. The environmental impact related to this kind of energy primarily originates fromcrop cultivation. This research aimed to evaluate the environmental impact of different crop systems for biomass production: single and double crop. The environmental performances of maize and maize plus wheat were assessed from a life cycle perspective. Two alternative scenarios considering different yields, crop management, and climatic conditions, were also addressed. One normal cubic metre of potentialmethanewas chosen as a functional unit.Methane potential production data were obtained through lab experimental tests. For both of the crop systems, the factors that have the greatest influence on the overall environmental burden are: fertilizer emissions, diesel fuel emissions, diesel fuel production, and pesticide production. Notwithstanding the greater level of methane potential production, the double crop system appears to have the worse environmental performance with respect to its single crop counterpart. This result is due to the bigger quantity of inputs needed for the double crop system. Therefore, the greater amount of biomass (silage) obtained through the double crop system is less than proportional to the environmental burden that results from the bigger quantity of inputs requested for double crop.