Technical and economical assessment of biomass potential for power production: A study in the south of Italy
Authors
A. Messineo, D. Bonasera, R. Volpe, S. Messineo, and A. Marvuglia
Reference
Journal of Environmental Accounting and Management, vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 287-299, 2016
Description
The use of biomass, among the various forms of renewable energy, has assumed a key role in the current European Union agenda. In 2005 the European Commission launched a “biomass action plan” in order to promote the development of biomass energy from wood, waste and agricultural crops and stimulate economic activities in rural areas. Among the various types of biomass, agroforestry residues are the prevalent amount in the country and the most readily available. However their use, in the production of electricity or in a cogeneration form, has not taken off for small plants. The main problems are related to the local availability of the resource, to logistics problems, to the purchase price and to the reliability of conversion technologies. This paper aims to analyze the residual agroforestry biomass (herbaceous and woody) in the administrative province of the city of Enna (Italy) and to evaluate the financial viability of a small gasification plant (< 1 MWe) with and without cogeneration. The support of a Geographic Information System (GIS) is used to identify the suitable areas for biomass exploitation and optimal localization of the conversion plants using a multi-criteria analysis based on different measures. The financial viability was evaluated for different scenarios based on investment costs, management costs and revenues from the selling of electricity for different plant sizes and number of yearly operational hours.
