Implementing Agricultural Pruning to Energy in Europe: Technical, Economic and Implementation Potentials

Arkadiusz Dyjakon and Daniel García-Galindo
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Arkadiusz Dyjakon: Institute of Agricultural Engineering, Wroclaw University of Environmental and Life Sciences, 51-630 Wroclaw, Poland
Daniel García-Galindo: Research Centre for Energy Resources and Consumption (CIRCE), 50018 Zaragoza, Spain

Energies, 2019, vol. 12, issue 8, 1-28

Abstract: The use of new sources of biomass residues for energy purposes in Europe is crucial for increasing the share of renewable energy sources and the limitation of carbon dioxide emissions. The residues coming from regular pruning of permanent crops are an alternative to conventional fuels. The paper is focused on the assessment of European pruning potentials in European Union (EU28) in line with the nomenclature of territorial units (NUTs) at NUTs0, NUTs2 and NUTs3 level. The assessment indicates that the yearly theoretical and technical potential of that biomass is 13.67 MtDM (or 252.0 PJ·yr −1 ) and 12.51 MtDM (or 230.6 PJ·yr −1 ), respectively. The economic potential has been assessed based on different management or exploitation models: management of pruning as a waste, self-consumption, and demand-driven mobilisation by consumption centres at small, medium and large scales. The utilisation of pruning when gathering is compulsory coincides with the technical potential. Under self-consumption, up to 10.98 MtDM per year could be effectively mobilised (202.3 PJ·yr −1 ). The creation of new value chains for delivery of pruning biomass ranges 7.30 to 8.69 MtDM per year (from 134.5 to 160.2 PJ·yr −1 ). When applying further constraints related to other existing uses the implementation of the potential further descends, ranging from 6.18 to 10.66 MtDM per year (from 113.9 to 196.4 PJ·yr −1 ). The analysis shows that the amount of available pruning residues is regionally scattered; however, most of them (ca. 80%) are located in the Mediterranean area.

Keywords: permanent crop; pruning; olive; fruit; nuts; vineyard; biomass potential; EU28 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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