Storage of Fine Woodchips from a Medium Rotation Coppice Eucalyptus Plantation in Central Italy

Luigi Pari, Simone Bergonzoli, Paola Cetera, Paolo Mattei, Vincenzo Alfano, Negar Rezaei, Alessandro Suardi, Giuseppe Toscano and Antonio Scarfone
Additional contact information
Luigi Pari: Council for Agricultural Research and Economics—Research Centre for Engineering and Agro-Food Processing (CREA-IT), Via della Pascolare, 16, Monterotondo, 00015 Roma, Italy
Simone Bergonzoli: Council for Agricultural Research and Economics—Research Centre for Engineering and Agro-Food Processing (CREA-IT), Via Milano 43, Treviglio, 24047 Bergamo, Italy
Paola Cetera: Council for Agricultural Research and Economics—Research Centre for Engineering and Agro-Food Processing (CREA-IT), Via della Pascolare, 16, Monterotondo, 00015 Roma, Italy
Paolo Mattei: Council for Agricultural Research and Economics—Research Centre for Engineering and Agro-Food Processing (CREA-IT), Via della Pascolare, 16, Monterotondo, 00015 Roma, Italy
Vincenzo Alfano: Council for Agricultural Research and Economics—Research Centre for Engineering and Agro-Food Processing (CREA-IT), Via della Pascolare, 16, Monterotondo, 00015 Roma, Italy
Negar Rezaei: Council for Agricultural Research and Economics—Research Centre for Engineering and Agro-Food Processing (CREA-IT), Via della Pascolare, 16, Monterotondo, 00015 Roma, Italy
Alessandro Suardi: Council for Agricultural Research and Economics—Research Centre for Engineering and Agro-Food Processing (CREA-IT), Via della Pascolare, 16, Monterotondo, 00015 Roma, Italy
Giuseppe Toscano: Department of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences, Marche Polytechnic University, Via Brecce Bianche, 60131 Ancona, Italy
Antonio Scarfone: Council for Agricultural Research and Economics—Research Centre for Engineering and Agro-Food Processing (CREA-IT), Via della Pascolare, 16, Monterotondo, 00015 Roma, Italy

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 9, 1-13

Abstract: Eucalyptus spp . has received attention from the research and industrial field as a biomass crop because of its fast growth and high productivity. The features of this species match with the increasing demand for wood for energy production. Commonly, the wood used for energy production is converted in chips, a material susceptible to microbial degradation and energy losses if not properly stored before conversion. This study aims at investigating two outdoor storage systems of Eucalyptus wood chips (covered vs. uncovered), assessing the variation in moisture content, dry matter losses and fuel characteristics. The class size of the material was P16, which was obtained using a commercial chipper appositely searched to conduct the study. The results highlighted how the different storage methods were influenced by the climatic condition: the woody biomass covered showed the best performances in terms of dry matter losses achieving 2.7% losses vs. the 8.5% of the uncovered systems. However, fuel characteristics displayed minor changes that affected the final energy balance (? En = −0.2% in covered; ? En = −6.17% in uncovered). Particle size varied in both methods with respect to the start conditions, but the variation was not enough to determine a class change, which remained P16 even after storage.

Keywords: eucalyptus; woody biomass; storage of fine wood chips; moisture content; calorific value; ash content; dry matter loss (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: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/9/2355/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/9/2355/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:13:y:2020:i:9:p:2355-:d:355533

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().