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This work has been developed under the AGROinLOG Project, “Demonstration of innovative integrated biomass logistics centres for the Agro-industry sector in Europe”. An Integrated Biomass Logistics Center (IBLC), is based on the introduction of new production chains into existing agro-industries by using new biomass feedstock. The AGROinLOG Project has dedicated great attention to investigate the potential of cereal chaff as a valuable resource.Chaff is the fine fraction of the thrashing residues, not usually collected. Chaff is made up of glumes, seed husks, rachis and the tinner part of the cereal stems, whole and cracked kernels, as well as weed seeds.Currently there are several mechanical solutions available on the market for chaff recovery, and others are still at prototype stage, but theyare not so common and very often unknown to the farmers.So far, the literature reportsfew cases of chaff collection with the specific purpose of weed seeds removal, but it still lacks specificexperiments on these machinesintentionally used for biomass collection.For this reason, during the Project AGROinLOG a series of large field tests were performed using an independent scientific approach with different kind of chaff harvesting technologiesin France, Sweden and Italy from 2017 to 2019.The present study collects the results of these activities with the aim to fill that gap and provide deeper understanding in the possibility to enhance the current cereal harvesting method, in order to improve the quantity of biomass collected by including the chaff. Proceedings of the 29th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 26-29 April 2021, Online, pp. 62-68

Recent extreme weather events have resulted in an ongoing discussion on the issues of land use and compensation payments within Austrian agriculture. Building on a functional evaluation system for agricultural lands as developed within the Interreg IIIB project “ILUP”, the national project “Agriculture and Flooding” has as its goal to classify the flood-protection contribution and flood sensitivity of agricultural lands. This, in turn, enables the recommendation of targeted measures for potentially improving flood situations, as well as an estimate of their implementation costs. In addition to the digital soil map, other fundamental sources used for the project are the digital flood risk map, IACS land-use data and works by the Institute for Land and Water Management Research. Reference values and marginal returns sourced from the Federal Institute of Agricultural Economics also flow into the cost estimates for the recommended combination. The results will contribute to an understanding of the multifunctionality of agricultural lands and to the setting of priorities on a regional scale regarding packaged flood-prevention and damage-minimization. However, the results at hand can only serve as one step toward regional flood protection projects, whose development will require the cooperation of all interest groups.

A reduction in the availability of phosphate rock resources for fertiliser production coincides with an increase in phosphorus-rich dairy wastewater in Europe. This confluence of events has led to the development of technologies for phosphorus recovery from dairy wastewater and the use of the products as fertilisers in agriculture. This thesis aims to contribute both to the technical development of this emerging technical system and methodological development of assessing the sustainability of it with regard to (1) the identification and selection of sustainability indicators, and (2) the assessment of life cycle environmental impacts. The thesis describes an approach developed for identifying and selecting sustainability indicators by reviewing scientific documents and interviews as well as an approach employed for performing a meta-analysis of previously published life cycle assessment results to cope with lack of inventory data. The employed method for indicator selection narrows down an initial set of 382 sustainability indicators identified in the literature to 26, which were considered representative and useful for the assessment of the considered innovative conceptual system. The meta-analysis results suggested that the examined phosphorus recovery technologies exhibited a lower global warming potential and cumulative energy demand than those of dairy wastewater treatment processes and that those technologies recovering phosphorus from the liquid phase had lower impacts than those recovering phosphorus from sludge or ash.

Despite the modest regional consumption of organic products, Sicily is one of the most important European regions in surface area per number of companies active in organic farming. The University of Palermo, as early as 2000, to promote the development and success in this industry, the Faculty of Agriculture, introduced two major degree programs in "Organic Farming". The objective of these courses is to train graduates who are technically capable of supporting the organic farmers market, to promote and facilitate the expansion of the consumption of organic products, and to create employment opportunities for young graduates. At the end of 2009, in the area of these activities, a training and research program involved numerous students in the creation of an "joint consumption" association whose purpose is the expansion of the consumption of organic products through the enhancement of a direct relationship with small organic farms who would be unlikely to penetrate large markets, or have relationships with large distribution networks. The project aims to assess the ability of the students of the Faculty to transmit the knowledge acquired in the program, and to investigate the relative issues regarding the new phenomenon emerging in recent years in Italy, represented by the spread of various forms of ethically-conscious consumption groups called “Gruppi di Acquisto Solidale (GAS)” or Solidarity Purchase Groups.

The core aim of this thesis was to quantify the effects of co-digesting forage silages with animal slurries on methane yields and to investigate if antagonistic or synergistic outcomes occur. In order to complete this assessment, the economic impacts of changing forage silage characteristics, of changing the mixing ratios of forage silage and cattle slurry in binary mixtures (and the presence of synergy or antagonism) and of changing the costs of providing these feedstocks for anaerobic digestion (AD) on the cost of methane production in an on-farm AD facility were accessed. An initial objective, however, was to define an optimal methodology for laboratory-scale anaerobic digestion, specifically to determine the impact of altering the headspace volume within incubation bottles and the overhead pressure measurement and release (OHPMR) frequency on methane yield using a manual manometric biochemical methane potential (mBMP) batch digestion method. Two anaerobic batch co-digestion experiments were conducted with forage silages and animal slurries. In the first experiment, oven-dried perennial ryegrass (harvested at two growth stages) or red clover (harvested at two growth stages) silages and cattle slurry were co-digested. Each binary mixture had synergistic effects which resulted in 2.8-7.5% higher methane yields than predicted from mono-digestion of individual substrates. In the second experiment, cattle slurry (two types) or pig slurry was co-digested with undried perennial ryegrass silages (harvested at two growth stages). Each silage and slurry mixture had antagonistic effects which resulted in methane yields 5.7-7.6% below those predicted from mono-digestion of individual substrates. In the initial experiment and in order to broaden the conditions under which the assessment was made, the biogas and methane yields of cellulose, barley grain, grass silage and cattle slurry were determined in response to three incubation bottle headspace volumes and four OHPMR frequencies. The methane yields of barley, silage and slurry were also compared with those from an automated volumetric method (i.e. AMPTS). Headspace volume and OHPMR frequency effects on biogas yield were mediated mainly through headspace pressure, with the latter having a negative effect on the biogas yield measured but relatively little effect on methane yield. Two mBMP treatments that produced methane yields equivalent to AMPTS were identified. Economic modelling results showed significant impacts of AD feedstock characteristics and their provision cost on the cost of methane production in an AD facility. The feedstock provision cost contributed about half of the total cost of methane production when the AD facility solely operated on grass silage. The total cost of methane produced from mono-digestion of cattle slurry that was supplied free of charge was more than double the cost of methane produced from grass silage. For co-digestion of grass silage and cattle slurry, the total cost of methane production progressively increased as the proportion of slurry in the co-digested mixture increased. Antagonistic and synergistic methanogenesis resulted in a corresponding 6% higher and 5% lower total cost of methane production during co-digestion of grass silage and cattle slurry (at a silage:slurry volatile solids ratio of 0.8:0.2) compared to the binary mixture without these effects.

We analyse ex-ante the effects of diet recommendations in France, Finland and Denmark. The simulation approach combines a behavioural model of adjustment to dietary constraints, an epidemiological model and an LCA model. We conclude that for the three countries: 1- The promotion of several diet recommendations would improve social welfare; 2- Healthy-eating recommendations targeting consumption of saturated fat, fruits/vegetables and salt should be prioritized for promotion; 3- Although synergies dominate, trade-offs between environmental and health objectives may occur in Finland and Denmark; and 4- The taste/utility cost of dietary change imposed on consumers should be included in the welfare analysis of diet recommendations. none

Reducing agronomic input supply can significantly contribute to decrease the environmental impact of bioenergy cropping systems. Currently, there is a renewed industrial interest in non-food oil crops for different end-uses application. Among species from Brassica genus, Brassica carinata A. Braun is an interesting winter annual crop in warm and semi-arid environments and may provide a rotation alternative with cereal crops, sourcing non-edible oil for the industry, additional incomes to the farmers and soil benefits. The present study compared four Brassica carinata lines (GID-6165, GIP-6164, GID-6091, GID-6084) under two different organic fertilization levels (80 and 160 kg N ha-1) in a semiarid Mediterranean area. These four lines have not been tested in Southern Italy previously, nor under the present low-input cultivation practices in semiarid Mediterranean area. Main findings showed a significant fertilization effect (P=0.05), with the high-input providing higher seed yields and harvest index than low-input. There was no genotype effect, however, the gap between potential (i.e. seed yield at the programmed plant density) and actual yields was rather high for GID-6165 and GID-6080. On the other hand, genotype had the largest effect on the thousand seed weight and the residual biomass yield. In general, GID-6091 and GID-6165 reached seed physiological maturity earlier than GID-6084 and GID-6164 lines. The present study proved that improved B. carinata lines can be grown in semiarid Mediterranean area under low-input organic systems, providing satisfactory seed yields. However, seedbed preparation was noticed to be key to narrow the gap between potential and actual seed yield, particularly under the present clay soil. Proceedings of the 30th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 9-12 May 2022, Online, pp. 120-124

This paper provides an overview of the economics of biofuels. It starts by describing the remarkable growth of the biofuel industry over the last decade, with emphasis on developments in the United States, Brazil and the European Union, and it identifies the driving role played by some critical policies. After a brief discussion of the motivations that are commonly argued in favor of biofuels and biofuel policies, the paper presents an assessment of the impacts of biofuels from the economics perspective. In particular, the paper explains the basic analytics of biofuel mandates, reviews several existing studies that have estimated the economic impacts of biofuels, presents some insights from a specific model, and outlines an appraisal of biofuel policies and the environmental impacts of biofuels. The paper concludes with an examination of several open issues and the future prospects of biofuels. Bio-based and Applied Economics, Vol 1 No 3 (2012): Towards a Sustainable Bio-economy: economic issues and policy challenges