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AbstractBACKGROUND: Inappropriate utilisation of biosolids may adversely impact agrosystem productivity. Here, we address the response of wheat (Triticum durum) to different doses (0, 40, 100, 200 and 300 t ha−1) of either municipal solid waste (MSW) compost or sewage sludge in a greenhouse pot experiment. Plant growth, heavy metal uptake, and antioxidant activity were considered.RESULTS: Biomass production of treated plants was significantly enhanced at 40 t ha−1 and 100 t ha−1 of MSW compost (+48% and +78% relative to the control, respectively). At the same doses of sewage sludge, the increase was only 18%. Higher doses of both biosolids restricted significantly the plant growth, in concomitance with the significant accumulation of heavy metals (Ni2+, Pb2+, Cu2+ and Zn2+), especially in leaves. Leaf activities of antioxidant enzymes (ascorbate peroxidase, glutathione reductase, catalase and superoxide dismutase) were unchanged at 40 t ha−1 MSW compost or sewage sludge, but were significantly stimulated at higher doses (200–300 t ha−1), together with higher leaf concentration of reduced glutathione.CONCLUSION: This preliminary study suggests that a MSW supply at moderate doses (100 t ha−1) could be highly beneficial for wheat productivity. Copyright © 2010 Society of Chemical Industry

Emergency building, devoted to give rapid and effective housing solutions to catastrophic and unexpected events, relies on the basic principles of construction rapidity and reversibility as well as the use of alternative energy sources. The growing need for environmental impact reduction in the building sector represents for temporary housing - especially under emergency conditions - a priority requisite, since, after given time lapses, areas occupied with emergency settlements will have to be recovered to their original use. In this case, the buildings' service life does not correspond to the life cycle of their materials and components; as a consequence, design activities will have to assure the dismantability and reusability of structures for further service cycles, making the whole process reversible: from construction to 'zero waste' de-construction. This paper aims at defining design criteria for low-impact emergency dwellings, assessing at the same time their applicability to corrugated steel pipes, obtained by assembling galvanized curved sheets - commonly used for underpasses and conduits - for which different use possibilities have been investigated. In this view, the research program has led to the definition of modular dwelling solutions. Then, technical feasibility studies have been carried out in collaboration with the industrial sector, taking advantage of consolidated production lines for innovative use purposes. Along the different research stages, a methodology has been defined for the assessment of the fundamental sustainability criteria through different simulation procedures; among these, the evaluation of the life-cycle environmental impacts with SimaPRO software and the 3D modelling for the maximization of the construction/environment integration - also in relation to the use of PV modules - have produced interesting results.

Wood biomass is turned into industrial fuel through chipping. The efficiency of chipping depends on many factors, including chipper knife wear. Chipper knife wear was determined through a long-term follow-up study, conducted at a waste wood recycling yard. Knife wear determined a sharp drop of productivity (>20%) and a severe decay in product quality. Dry sharpening with a grinder mitigated this effect, but it could not replace proper wet sharpening. Increasing the frequency of wet sharpening sessions determined a moderate increase of knife depreciation cost, but it could drastically enhance machine performance and reduce biomass processing cost. Since benefits largely exceed costs, increasing the frequency of wet sharpening sessions may be an effective measure for reducing overall chipping cost. If the main goal of a chipper operator is to increase productivity and/or decrease fuel consumption, then managing knife wear should be a primary target. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Alternative fuels and energy vectors are becoming increasingly important in terms of technical, geopolitical, economic, and environmental aspects. In particular, gaseous fuels and vectors, such as fossil or synthetic natural gas (NG) blended with hydrogen, commonly help provide optimal strategies to reduce global and toxic emissions of internal combustion engines, owing to their adaptability, anti-knock capacity, lower toxicity of pollutants, reduced CO2 emissions, and costeffectiveness. However, diesel engines still represent the reference category among internal combustion engines in terms of maximum thermodynamic efficiency. The possibility offered by dual-fuel (DF) systems to combine the efficiency and performance of diesel engines with the environmental advantages of gaseous fuels has been the subject of extensive investigations. However, the simple replacement of diesel fuel with gaseous fuel does not allow for optimising the engine performance, owing to the high percentage of unburned gaseous fuel, which compromises the potential reduction of CO2; therefore, more complex combustion strategies should be realised. In this study, with the aim of improving the DF combustion process, an experimental investigation was performed to analyse low-temperature combustion (LTC), using NG and two enriched hydrogen-compressed NG blends as primary fuels. The LTC mode was activated by means of a very early advanced pilot injection and carried out in two close steps. The double pilot injection was used to control the energy release rate in the first combustion stage, thereby minimizing the increase of the rate of pressure and allowing the extension of the operation range under LTC. The experimental activity was also focused on analysing the particle emissions, as it is well known that these emissions, together with those of nitrogen oxide, constitute the main pollutants resulting from diesel fuel combustion. The results demonstrated the potential to reduce the unburned fuel, NOx, and particle emissions simultaneously, while maintaining equivalent CO2 emissions to a diesel-only engine. Both the timing and pressure of the pilot injection proved to be critical parameters for optimising the emissions and performance

Landfill gas (LFG) tends to escape from the landfill surface even when LFG collecting systems are installed. Since LFG leaks are generally a noticeable percentage of the total production of LFG, the optimisation of the collection system is a fundamental step for both energy recovery and environmental impact mitigation. In this work, we suggest to take into account the results of direct measurements of gas fluxes at the air-cover interface to achieve this goal.During the last 5 years (2004-2009), 11 soil gas emission surveys have been carried out at the Municipal Solid Waste landfill of Legoli (Peccioli municipality, Pisa Province, Italy) by means of the accumulation chamber method. Direct and simultaneous measurements of CH(4) and CO(2) fluxes from the landfill cover (about 140,000 m(2)) have been performed to estimate the total output of both gases discharged into the atmosphere. Three different data processing have been applied and compared: Arithmetic mean of raw data (AMRD), sequential Gaussian conditional simulations (SGCS) and turning bands conditional simulations (TBCS). The total amount of LFG (captured and not captured) obtained from processing of direct measurements has been compared with the corresponding outcomes of three different numerical models (LandGEM, IPCC waste model and GasSim).Measured fluxes vary from undetectable values (<0.05 mol m(-2) day(-1) for CH(4) and <0.02 mol m(-2) day(-1) for CO(2)) to 246 mol m(-2) day(-1) for CH(4) and 275 mol m(-2) day(-1) for CO(2). The specific CH(4) and CO(2) fluxes (flux per surface unit) vary from 1.8 to 7.9 mol m(-2) day(-1) and from 2.4 to 7.8 mol m(-2) day(-1), respectively.The three different estimation methodologies (AMRD, SGCS and TBCS) used to evaluate the total output of diffused CO(2) and CH(4) fluxes from soil provide similar estimations, whereas there are some mismatches between these results and those of numerical LFG production models. Isoflux maps show a non-uniform spatial distribution, with high-flux zones not always corresponding with high-temperature areas shown by thermographic images.The average value estimated over the 5-year period for the Legoli landfill is 245 mol min(-1) for CH(4) and 379 mol min(-1) for CO(2), whereas the volume percentage of CH(4) in the total gas discharged into the atmosphere varies from 29% to 51%, with a mean value of 39%. The estimated yearly emissions from the landfill cover is about 1.29 x 10(8) mol annum(-1) (2,100 t year(-1)) of CH(4) and 1.99 x 10(8) mol annum(-1) (8,800 t year(-1)) of CO(2). Considering that the CH(4) global warming potential is 63 times greater than that of CO(2) (20 a time horizon, Lashof and Ahuja 1990), the emission of methane corresponds to 130,000 t annum(-1) of CO(2).The importance of these studies is to provide data for the worldwide inventory of CH(4) and CO(2) emissions from landfills, with the ultimate aim of determining the contribution of waste disposal to global warming. This kind of studies could be extended to other gas species, like the volatile organic compounds.

The transition to a low carbon future is starting to affect landscapes around the world. In order for this landscape transformation to be sustainable, renewable energy technologies should not cause critical trade-offs between the provision of energy and that of other ecosystem services such as food production. This literature review advances the body of knowledge on sustainable energy transition with special focus on ecosystem services-based approaches and methods. Two key issues emerge from this review: only one sixth of the published applications on the relation between renewable energy and landscape make use of the ecosystem service framework. Secondly, the applications that do address ecosystem services for landscape planning and design lack efficient methods and spatial reference systems that accommodate both cultural and regulating ecosystem services. Future research efforts should be directed to further advancing the spatial reference systems, the use of participatory mapping and landscape visualizations tools for cultural ecosystem services and the elaboration of landscape design principles.

In themediumtolongterm,lowfossilfuelavailabilitywillmakeitnecessarytofindalternatives.Mass productionofbiofuelswillnotbeapracticalsolutionbecauseitrequiresstrongcompetitionforland that isusedforgrowingfood.Therefore,itwillbenecessarytorevisetheframeoftransportation energy sources.Thenumberofpurelight-andheavy-dutyelectricvehiclescouldincreaseinurban areas.Instead,itwillbehardtofindaviablealternativetotheinternalcombustionengineforextra- urban transportvehicles,thereforealternativesyntheticfuelscouldbeusedtocompensateforfossil fuel depletion.Asidefromasmallshareobtainablefrombiomass,mostsyntheticfuelsareexpectedto be obtainedfromcoal.Amongthese,syntheticnaturalgasrepresentsaverygoodsolution.Infact, syntheticnaturalgaswillbeadvantageouswithrespecttohydrogen,whoseon-boardstoragewillbean unsolvedprobleminthemediumterm,andwithrespecttosyntheticliquidfuels,whichrequiremore energy intheproductionphase.Moreover,thecarboncontentofliquidfuels,whichishigherthanthat of gaseousfuels,willberesponsibleforhigherCO2 emissionsfromvehicles.Currently,naturalgashas poor diffusioninthetransportsector,andthispaperhighlightsthemotivationsforfavouringapolicy aimedatincreasingtheshareofgaseousfuel-poweredvehicles.Inadditiontothelowenvironmental impact,syntheticnaturalgasalsooffersthepossibilityofoptimisingtheutilisationoffutureresources

Great efforts have been paid to improve engine efficiency as well as to reduce the pollutant emissions. The direct injection allows to improve the engine efficiency; on the other hand, the GDI combustion produces larger particle emissions. The properties of fuels play an important role both on engine performance and pollutant emissions. In particular, great attention was paid to the octane number. Oxygenated compounds allow increasing gasoline's octane number and play an important role in PM emission reduction. In this study was analyzed the effect of fuels with different RON and with ethanol and ethers content. The analysis was performed on a small GDI engine. Two operating conditions, representative of the typical EUDC cycle, were investigated. Both the engine performance and the exhaust emissions were evaluated. The gaseous emissions and particle concentration were measured at the exhaust by means of conventional instruments. Particle size distribution function was measured in the range from 5.6 nm to 560 nm by means of an Engine Exhaust Particle Sizer (EEPS). The results point out that the better result in terms of performance and emission reduction was observed for the high RON fuel. The fuels with ethanol as additive show a large fuel consumption and a not valuable effect on exhaust emissions

It is recognised that several constraints such as the lack of knowledge and expertise of farmers, land users and policy makers concerning agroforestry systems establishment and management hamper the adoption of agroforestry systems (Camilli et al. 2017). AFINET project acts at EU level in order to direct research results into practice and promote innovative ideas to face challenges and solve practitioners' problems. AFINET proposes an innovative methodology based on the creation of a European Interregional Network, linking different Regional Agroforestry Innovation Networks (RAINs). RAINs represent different climatic, geographical, social and cultural conditions and enclose a balanced representation of the key actors with complementary types of expertise (farmers, policy makers, advisory services, extension services, etc.). The Italian RAIN is focused on the Extra-Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO) value chain, with the main aim to promote agroforestry management of local olive orchards. Olive trees are still managed traditionally, often in marginal sites, with minimal mechanization and relatively low external inputs such as chemical treatments in comparison to other crops. The presence of permanent crops (olive trees) guarantees a partially tree cover reducing hydrogeological risk. Soil management usually keeps natural grassing reducing soil carbon emission and increasing soil fertility (Bateni et al. 2017). Intercropping with cereals and/or fodder legumes and livestock can also be practiced in olive orchards, increasing the complexity of the olive tree multifunctional system. Moreover, olive orchards can be managed as agroforestry systems since they can be intercropped with arable crops (cereals, legumes) and/or combined with livestock (sheep, poultry). The RAIN process, involving local stakeholders, highlighted the main bottlenecks of the EVOO value chain related to communication and dissemination of knowledge, technical and management aspects, market and policy. In order to contrast bottlenecks and exploit opportunities of the olive oil supply chain, the identified innovations are: i) adoption of best practices: testing and experimenting innovative agroforestry systems introducing different crop/animals species and varieties; ii) improve the management of the olive orchards: encouraging and increasing the organic production; iii) valorisation of olive processing residues: identifying and testing innovative products (bio-materials, olive paste as example); iv) arise the awareness among consumers: educating people about the benefits of olive oil consumption, creating networks among stakeholders, improving marketing and commercialization. Creating a Bio-district, defined as a geographical area where farmers, citizens, tourist operators, associations and public authorities enter into an agreement for the sustainable management of local resources, emerged a powerful tool to implement the innovation in the local EVOO value chain.