One specific combined machine, aimed at increasing the energetic exploitation of the herbaceous biomass from grass-planted vineyards, orchards and river banks, has been designed and manufactured by BERTI Macchine Agricole (Caldiero, Verona, Italy). Compared to the technical solutions already available in the market, it allows to cut, pre-process and harvest the grass (whose average biogas potential is 356 ± 100 Nm3 t vs-1) in one passage, pushing forward the sustainability and the profitability of the supply chain. Machine testing in vineyards showed it has adequate manoeuvrability and operative performances: the operative working rate of 0.94 h·ha-1 and the 3.33 m3 effective capacity of the loader make it capable to mow, harvest and shred up to 283 m of fruit trees/vines rows at a time allowing the supplying of up to 6.7 Mg of grass to the biogas plant.

Proceedings of the 25th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 12-15 June 2017, Stockholm, Sweden, pp. 1967-1973