Integrating bioenergy and other renewables to improve the sustainability of the agrifood sector: Analysis of real case studies

The agrifood sector is highly energy consuming thus implementing renewables to replace fossil fuels could significantly contribute, at worldwide level, to decarbonisation. Due to the significant production of residues, which are generally characterized by an interesting energy content, bioenergy production is recognized as an attractive strategy to improve the environmental sustainability of the agrifood chain. However, energy recovery of residues is usually insufficient to cover a significant fraction of the energy demand of the producer, due to the eventual seasonality of production or the low amount of generation. For these reasons, this work underlines the importance of coupling bioenergy to different renewable energy sources, depending on the local availability to significantly reduce the environmental impact of energy use in the agrifood sector. The analysis is carried out by considering two case studies based on the real operation of two Italian companies, for which, starting from the yearly energy demand, a system based on the integration of bioenergy and solar energy is designed and its feasibility is demonstrated from an energy, economic and environmental point of view.