Economic feasibility and environmental benefits of farm-scale biogas plants

The agricultural biomasses constitute a prominent part of the renewable energy that have a key role in the energy policy of European Union. In the last years the electricity production from biogas generated by anaerobic digestion of biomasses has been considerably supported at national level. In this study a financial analysis of farm-scale anaerobic digestion plants has been carried out to evaluate the profitability of the projects from a private point of view, and an economic analysis have been carried out to underline the projects‟ social and environmental benefits that affect the community on the whole. The results of the financial analysis show the determinant and necessary role of the incentive to guarantee the financial profitability of the projects. Whereas the economic analysis highlights a lack of data in the literature about the appraisal and monetization of the potential externalities generated by the farm-scale biogas chain; moreover it proves that the feed in tariff applied is overestimated respect the tariff that make the projects economically feasible. The anaerobic digestion plants fed only with animal manure and sewage present higher externalities than the once fed exclusively with energy crops. However the adopted feed in tariff support both the plant typologies without distinction, but for the plants that use only energy the financing is not justified because the non-equivalents social and environmental benefits

Analysis of the prior of aggressive acts in the Psychiatric Services of Diagnosis and Treatment - a retrospective study

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Influenza del contenuto idrico del cippato sull’impatto ambientale di una caldaia a biomassa di un impianto di essicazione in Veneto

La filiera foresta-legno veneta sta soffrendo una profonda crisi a causa di uno scollamento tra le sue fasi, di una maggiore competitività dei paesi oltre confine e di maggiori vantaggi economici derivanti dall’importazione di segati. La maggior parte dei prodotti della selvicoltura (produzione di tronchi e tondame) e semilavorati derivanti dalla prima trasformazione, vengono infatti importati da altri paesi europei e solo una minima parte proviene dal territorio italiano. Una delle fasi della filiera che presenta maggiori criticità è proprio quella della prima lavora - zione, anello fondamentale della catena produttiva, spesso incapace di sostenere la concorrenza con le segherie d’oltralpe a causa del minor livello tecnologico. In questo delicato contesto, si è voluto analizzare un caso di studio rappresentativo della realtà veneta, ovvero una segheria in cui è stato installato un impianto di essiccazione munito di caldaia alimentata a biomassa, in un’ottica di miglioramento tecnologico del sistema segheria da un lato, e di economia circolare dall’altro, visto che la caldaia viene alimentata da scarti di lavorazione della seghe ria stessa. Nello specifico, è stata condotta un’analisi di impatto ambientale utilizzando la metodologia dell’anali si del ciclo di vita (LCA). Sono stati analizzati tutti i principali processi che caratterizzano la produzione di tavole essiccate di abete rosso e in particolare si è analizzato in dettaglio il processo di essiccazione. L’obiettivo dell’analisi è quello di valutare come il contenuto idrico del cippato impiegato per alimentare la caldaia incida sul processo di essiccazione in termini di emissioni. Diversi studi in letteratura sottolineano l’importanza di utilizzare cippato con basso contenuto idrico (≤25%) per aumentare l’efficienza termica della caldaia, ridurre le emissioni e migliorare il processo di essiccazione. Dalle analisi effettuate è emerso che il cippato prodotto nella segheria presenta un elevato contenuto idrico, pari al 45%. Pertanto è stata svolta un’analisi di sensitività elaborando tre scenari in cui viene utilizzato cippato a tre diversi contenuti idrici: 25%, 30% e 45%. Sono state quindi analizzate la variazione dell’efficienza termica e le emissioni prodotte. Le emissioni sono state calcolate utilizzando tre metodologie: IPCC AR5, CML2011- Aug. 2016 e ReCiPe2016 e, per la maggior parte delle categorie d’impatto, il processo di combustione del cippato in caldaia risulta essere il processo più impattante. Come ben noto, all’aumentare del contenuto idrico del cippato diminuisce l’efficienza termica della caldaia. Questo comporta tempi più lunghi per il raggiungimento della temperatura di essiccazione con un conseguente aumento delle emissioni del la combustione. Passando da un contenuto idrico del 25% ad uno del 45%, l’efficienza termica della caldaia si riduce del 22,27% e le emissioni aumentano del 28,66%. Ad esempio, per ottenere 580 MJ di calore necessari all’essiccazione di 1m3 di tavole, quando si utilizza un cippato con il 25% di contenuto idrico, se ne devono bruciare 33,40 kg che generano 69,45 kg di CO2eq, mentre quando il contenuto idrico del cippato sale al 45%, sono necessari 42,92 kg di biomassa legnosa la cui combustione produce 89,36 kg di CO2eq. Perfezionare il processo di essiccazione permetterebbe pertanto di migliorarne la sostenibilità ambientale, diminuendo le emissioni in atmosfera, e, naturalmente, di aumentarne l’efficienza produttiva, rendendo la segheria più competitiva e sostenibile

Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of Bioenergy Production from Different Wood Pellet Supply Chains

The EU is one of the largest producers and consumers of wood pellets in the world, covering around 36% of the global wood pellet production and around 50% of the global consumption in 2018. The EU wood pellet consumption is expected to further increase in response to the ambitious energy and climate goals for 2030. Currently, wood pellets are mainly produced from sawdust and other sawmill residues; however, other types of forest feedstock are being investigated in order to meet the increasing wood pellet demand and move toward greater energy independence. The aim of this study is to evaluate and compare the environmental impact of di\ufb00erent wood pellet supply chains. A comparative cradle-to-grave life cycle assessment is performed considering the following wood feedstock systems: (i) sawdust from sawmill (S1), (ii) roundwood logs (S2), (iii) whole trees from forest thinning operation (S3), and (iv) logging residues produced during forest tree harvesting (S4). The study focuses on Global Warming Potential (GWP), Ozone Depletion Potential (ODP), Photochemical Ozone Creation Potential (POCP), and Human Toxicity Potential (HTP). Results show that S3 displays the lowest \ufb01gures on all the environmental impact categories considered in this study. Compared to the reference case S1, S3 shows a GWP reduction of 46%, an ODP reduction of 6.6%, a POCP reduction of 14.8%, and HTP reduction of 13.2%. S3 and S4 have lower GWP than S1 and S2, even when the biogenic CO2 emissions are considered. Overall, the life cycle phases that have the highest GWP, POCP, and HTP are the burning phase and the preparation of the material to be pelletized, particularly the drying process. Nevertheless, the main phases that contribute to the ODP are the forest operations and the pellet preparation

The CirCo (Circular Coffee) Project: A Case Study on Valorization of Coffee Silverskin in the Context of Circular Economy in Italy

Coffee silverskin (CSS) is one of the main byproducts of coffee roasting and poses a potential risk to the environment if disposed of incorrectly. Each year in Italy, over 500,000 tonnes of green coffee are imported for roasting followed by consumption or export. This results in over 7500 tonnes of CSS produced each year which is typically disposed of as solid waste. Silverskin contains lignocellulose and can be used as a substitute for other raw materials to produce paper pulp. Both Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Life Cycle Costing (LCC) were performed to compare the impact and cost of CSS paper production to conventional paper production using only virgin pulp. It was shown that the addition of CSS reduces the environmental impact of paper production by 10% and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 13% compared to conventional production with no cost increase (0.01% reduction with addition of CSS) for the producer. The results of this case study show that the utilization of CSS for paper production at the national level in Italy represents a suitable example of circular economy (CE)

Evaluation of a quality improvement intervention to reduce anastomotic leak following right colectomy (EAGLE): pragmatic, batched stepped-wedge, cluster-randomized trial in 64 countries

Background Anastomotic leak affects 8 per cent of patients after right colectomy with a 10-fold increased risk of postoperative death. The EAGLE study aimed to develop and test whether an international, standardized quality improvement intervention could reduce anastomotic leaks. Methods The internationally intended protocol, iteratively co-developed by a multistage Delphi process, comprised an online educational module introducing risk stratification, an intraoperative checklist, and harmonized surgical techniques. Clusters (hospital teams) were randomized to one of three arms with varied sequences of intervention/data collection by a derived stepped-wedge batch design (at least 18 hospital teams per batch). Patients were blinded to the study allocation. Low- and middle-income country enrolment was encouraged. The primary outcome (assessed by intention to treat) was anastomotic leak rate, and subgroup analyses by module completion (at least 80 per cent of surgeons, high engagement; less than 50 per cent, low engagement) were preplanned. Results A total 355 hospital teams registered, with 332 from 64 countries (39.2 per cent low and middle income) included in the final analysis. The online modules were completed by half of the surgeons (2143 of 4411). The primary analysis included 3039 of the 3268 patients recruited (206 patients had no anastomosis and 23 were lost to follow-up), with anastomotic leaks arising before and after the intervention in 10.1 and 9.6 per cent respectively (adjusted OR 0.87, 95 per cent c.i. 0.59 to 1.30; P = 0.498). The proportion of surgeons completing the educational modules was an influence: the leak rate decreased from 12.2 per cent (61 of 500) before intervention to 5.1 per cent (24 of 473) after intervention in high-engagement centres (adjusted OR 0.36, 0.20 to 0.64; P < 0.001), but this was not observed in low-engagement hospitals (8.3 per cent (59 of 714) and 13.8 per cent (61 of 443) respectively; adjusted OR 2.09, 1.31 to 3.31). Conclusion Completion of globally available digital training by engaged teams can alter anastomotic leak rates. Registration number: NCT04270721 (http://www.clinicaltrials.gov)