AGRoIndustrial sector decarbonisation through energy recovery from waste biomass and integration with other RENEWables: Project description and preliminary results

The paper presents the activities and preliminary results of the ongoing research project AGRIRENEW “AGRoIndustrial sector decarbonisation through energy recovery from waste biomass and integration with other RENEWables”. The project aims to transform agroindustrial waste from an environmental problem into a sustainable energy source by developing and analyzing energy-efficient and eco-friendly solutions for energy recovery. A key objective is the integration of residual biomass conversion into biofuels with other renewable technologies, like solar and geothermal energy prevalent in Southern Italy. This integration is assessed by modelling real-time system operation, optimizing designs based on waste type, operating parameters, weather, and user demand. As conversion processes of agricultural wastes, anaerobic digestion for biogas/biomethane production and gasification for syngas generation have been considered. For selected case studies of Campania region, Southern Italy, biomass potential and energy patterns have been estimated to carry out dynamic simulations in order to assess the feasibility of the proposed systems. As future activity, also the environmental impact via life cycle analysis will be assessed.