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The influence of compost on the growth of bean plants irrigated with As-contaminated waters and its influence on the mobility of As in the soils and the uptake of As (as NaAs(III)O2) by plant components was studied at various compost application rates (3·10(4) and 6·10(4) kg ha(-1)) and at three As concentrations (1, 2 and 3 mg kg(-1)). The biomass and As and P concentrations of the roots, shoots and beans were determined at harvest time, as well as the chlorophyll content of the leaves and nonspecific and specifically bound As in the soil. The bean plants exposed to As showed typical phytotoxicity symptoms; no plants however died over the study. The biomass of the bean plants increased with the increasing amounts of compost added to the soil, attributed to the phytonutritive capacity of compost. Biomass decreased with increasing As concentrations, however, the reduction in the biomass was significantly lower with the addition of compost, indicating that the As phytotoxicity was alleviated by the compost. For the same As concentration, the As content of the roots, shoots and beans decreased with increasing compost added compared to the Control. This is due to partial immobilization of the As by the organic functional groups on the compost, either directly or through cation bridging. Most of the As adsorbed by the bean plants accumulated in the roots, while a scant allocation of As occurred in the beans. Hence, the addition of compost to soils could be used as an effective means to limit As accumulation in crops from As-contaminated waters.

Thermokinetics of Biochar production.

Wild microalgae (prokaryotic and eukaryotic photosynthetic microorganisms) - phytoplankton - is at the base of the food chain, supporting aquatic primary production. Microalgae are an ideal platform for the large-scale production of biomass because they are fast-growing, solar-powered 'biofactories' with low nutrient requirements. The variety of high-value bioproducts comes from microalgal species due to their wide physiological and functional diversity. Over the last 60 years, microalgal biotechnology has shown a range of applications: from the traditional extensive biomass production in human and animal nutrition, soil conditioning in agriculture, technologies for waste-water treatment, products for cosmetics and pharmacy, and most recently to the possible production of a 'third' generation of biofuels.

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

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The extensive abandonment of agricultural lands in the Mediterranean basin has led to large landscapes being dominated by early-successional species, characterized by high flammability and an increasing fire risk. This fact promotes fire occurrence and places ecosystems in a state of arrested succession. In this work, we assessed the effectiveness of several restoration actions in redirecting these ecosystems toward more resilient communities dominated by resprouting species. These actions included the mechanical clearing of early-successional species, the plantation of resprouting species, and the combination of both treatments. For 13 years, we assessed shifts in the successional trajectory and ecosystem flammability by changes in: species composition, species richness, ecosystem evenness, the natural colonization of resprouting species, total biomass and proportion of dead biomass. We observed that the plantation and clearing combination was a suitable strategy to promote resilience. Species richness increased as well as the presence of the resprouting species introduced by planting. The natural colonization of the resprouting species was also enhanced. These changes in the successional trajectory were accompanied by a possible reduction of fire risk by reducing dead fuel proportion. These findings are relevant for the management of Mediterranean basin areas, but also suggest new tools for redirecting systems in fire-prone areas worldwide.

The energy transition in agriculture must be accompanied by agronomic practices that shift production towards organic regimes. Among the energy consuming processes that today find resistance in organic conversion there is certainly the removal of weeds from crops, that is mainly carried out through herbicides. This analysis evaluates the economic and environmental implications that the introduction of innovative thermal weeding systems, powered by biomass gasification, can have in the substitution of traditional chemical and mechanical weeding technologies. The comparison is carried out through a combination of cost–benefit analysis, environmental analysis and sensitivity analysis applied to the case study of vineyard management in northern Italy. The results show that the biomass-powered weeding system is economically feasible when it can benefit from economic incentives that reward organic production. In all cases, biomass-powered weeding system provides for a reduction in equivalent CO2 emissions which reaches −75% in the case of replacement of glyphosate-based chemical weeding methods. The analysis points out that gasification-powered weeding process can also achieve carbon neutrality through the co-production of biochar, which should lead policy makers to support this practice under the environmental objectives at national and European level.

Starting from (but not limited to) their importance in the Italian context, three agricultural substrates, two of fruit origin (grape seeds and plum stones) and one of herbaceous origin (woad), were comparatively tested for both biomethane production and digestate characterization. The anaerobic digestion tests showed that grape seeds had the highest net methane production of 253.0 NmL g volatile solids (VS)(-1), followed by plum stones, whose best resulting net methane production was 174.7 NmL gVS(-1), and finally by woad with a net methane production of 153.1 NmL gVS(-1). Interestingly, the best methane productions of the fruit substrates were obtained with different substrate to inoculum ratios (on a VS basis), 1:1 for grape seeds but 2:1 for plum stones. On the other hand, a three-month ageing of woad caused a limited reduction of methane production. The estimation of obtained degrees of conversion, carried out on a chemical oxygen demand (COD) basis for the specific tests achieving the respective best methane productions, gave values of 48%, 31%, and 33% for grape seeds, plum stones, and woad, respectively. The estimated degrees of conversion were evaluated along with the respective methane productions and substrate COD/VS ratios. The comparison of Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectra and differential thermal analysis (DTA) profiles, carried out for selected digestates in pairs, revealed some distinctive differences in the relative intensities or presence and absence of particular peaks in the FT-IR spectra and in the relative intensities of the exothermic peaks or horizontal curve shifting of the DTA profiles.