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Cold stress in sheep is usually overlooked, even though the animals’ welfare and productivity are affected by low temperatures. The aim of this research was to find out if and to what extent the temperature inside a sheep barn could be maintained within the range of the thermoneutral zone during winter, primarily to increase feed conversion and to reduce GHG emissions. For this reason, an automation system was installed at a sheep barn in northern Greece, and heat losses from the building were calculated. The biogas potential of the sheep barn waste was examined in the laboratory via the BMP method. The results showed that the installation of an automation system together with a hypothetical biogas heating system could maintain the barn’s temperature in the range of a sheep’s thermoneutral zone during winter for the 94% of the scenarios examined if the total energy of the biogas was utilized, while heating energy that was instantly and continuously used succeeded in 48% of the investigated cases. The surplus of energy produced by biogas could potentially raise the water temperature that animals drink up to 2.9 °C. The absence of cold stress decreases the dry matter intake and the CH4 produced by ruminal fermentation. Moreover, lower GHG emissions are achieved as waste is treated through anaerobic digestion, which would likely be released into the environment if left untreated.

Wheat straw is an abundant source of lignocellulosic biomass that is generally not utilized for biofuel production, nor for other uses. Recent EU renewable energy directive fosters bioethanol production through lignocellulosic sugars fermentation, but the cost of this process is an issue that often depends on biomass characteristics. Lignin is a class of three-dimensional polymers providing structural integrity of plant tissues. Its complex structure, together with hemicelluloses and uronic acids content, could affect the ability of hydrolyzing biomass to fermentable sugars. To get insights into this variation, a set of 10 durum wheat genotypes was analyzed to determine variation of straw digestibility to fermentable sugars. The results showed that the lignin content was the major factor determining the recalcitrance to enzymatic process. The analysis of Spearman’s correlation indicated that the sugar released after enzymatic hydrolysis had a negative connection with the lignin content, while it was positively correlated with the culm length. The possible role of other cell wall components, such as arabinose and uronic acids, was also discussed. This work aimed at analyzing the diversity of lignocellulosic digestibility to fermentable sugars of wheat straw in a small germplasm collection. Some of the selected genotypes were characterized by high sugars digestibility and high grain yield, characteristics that could make biorefining of wheat straw profitable.

The climate change that plagues the world is causing extended periods of water shortage. This situation is forcing farmers in the region of Murcia in Spain to modernize their irrigation systems to optimize use of the scarce water they have and seek a circular water economy using the recovered water. Moreover, an associated problem is the need for energy that these facilities require in order to pressurize the required water. The use of photovoltaic generation contributes to the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Food produced in this region tends to have guaranteed markets in Europe and, geographically, due to the high quality of phytosanitary controls and traceability during their marketing, their optimal cultivation, and selection and labelling is verified, specifying valuable information such as: collection date, origin, the use of organic fertilizers among others. To maintain market access, it is important to continue implementing other environmental improvements, i.e., reductions in either hydro or carbon footprints. Previous studies have failed to include the prospect of environmental use of isolated facilities to replace existing consumption, seeking the monetarization of the facility as well as prioritizing the reduction of GHG. Previous studies have failed to include the perspective of environmental use of isolated photovoltaic installations, based on existing consumption, thus, going beyond the monetarization of the facility, to prioritize the reduction of GHG applied in practice by environmentally sensitized farmers. This study was conducted in an existing facility with great technical complexity and three different sources of water supply, over 1500 plots and an altitude range in plots and reservoirs of more than 400 m.

The European Bioeconomy Strategy aims to strengthen and boost biobased sectors, unlocking investments and markets while rapidly deploying local bioeconomies across Europe and improving compliance with environmental and social sustainability goals. Current biomass provision structures and infrastructure might not be able to tap the sustainable potential of forestry-, agricultural residues and biogenic waste envisaged forming the biogenic feedstock base of the Circular Bioeconomy of tomorrow. Therefore, for the present paper, we assess mobilization strategies, their current status, opportunities, and barriers for local low value and heterogenous biomass resources. Based on discussions with bioenergy supply chain experts, we cluster mobilization measures into three assessment levels; the legislative framework, market structures and technological innovation. Scientific literature research on the respective keywords is performed, the European policy landscape mapped, and the results are enriched with anecdotal evidence, especially for recent and running projects and market developments that lack in published track records. We can identify research needs on all three assessment levels. Still, technological development and legislative frameworks are providing support for heterogeneous biomass mobilization. Market creation, however, represents a bottleneck. We provide novel perspectives, how physical- and virtual bio-hubs and crediting stake- and shareholder variety could create added-value based on sustainable primary economic activities and their cascading activities.

The use of new sources of biomass residues for energy purposes in Europe is crucial for increasing the share of renewable energy sources and the limitation of carbon dioxide emissions. The residues coming from regular pruning of permanent crops are an alternative to conventional fuels. The paper is focused on the assessment of European pruning potentials in European Union (EU28) in line with the nomenclature of territorial units (NUTs) at NUTs0, NUTs2 and NUTs3 level. The assessment indicates that the yearly theoretical and technical potential of that biomass is 13.67 MtDM (or 252.0 PJ·yr−1) and 12.51 MtDM (or 230.6 PJ·yr−1), respectively. The economic potential has been assessed based on different management or exploitation models: management of pruning as a waste, self-consumption, and demand-driven mobilisation by consumption centres at small, medium and large scales. The utilisation of pruning when gathering is compulsory coincides with the technical potential. Under self-consumption, up to 10.98 MtDM per year could be effectively mobilised (202.3 PJ·yr−1). The creation of new value chains for delivery of pruning biomass ranges 7.30 to 8.69 MtDM per year (from 134.5 to 160.2 PJ·yr−1). When applying further constraints related to other existing uses the implementation of the potential further descends, ranging from 6.18 to 10.66 MtDM per year (from 113.9 to 196.4 PJ·yr−1). The analysis shows that the amount of available pruning residues is regionally scattered; however, most of them (ca. 80%) are located in the Mediterranean area.