Agripellet in Puglia: raising the value of residual biomass
Utilizing residues is a good practice rooted in agriculture and is returning today as a strategy for developing a circular economy. Tree pruning operations create substantial quantities of biomass which can be put to use for the production of renewable energy sources. Moving residual biomass must be done with limited cost and the certainty of the level of the quality of the materials collected. For this purpose it is important to have a good organization of the supply chain with recourse to know-how and avant garde mechanization. The experience of the Agritoppi in Foggia working with the collaboration of the Nobili industry
Historically Italy has come to terms with the natural shortage of domestic resources needed by a large population by applying great ingenuity and work. For food requirements we have been able to make land productive even in very complicated setting for cultivations and decidedly small crop yields. For these reasons, over time farmers have fine tuned capabilities for increasing the value of all that is produced by the land by finding ways to effectively reuse any waste left behind by diverse crop cycles. In short, before the environmental drive we were forced to learn how to conduct a moderate and sustainable lifestyle. Over the long run this requires a lot of labor, intelligence and renouncing quite a bit. Thanks to scientific and technology advances it is now possible to return to what were once habits that today require less work and provide greater benefits. The orientation toward the circular economy warmly supported by the European Union is nothing other than the vision of a strategy and the high technology we are able to create with many fewer instruments before consumerism. An example in the farming sector is greater attention given to raising the value of biomass produced with tree pruning residues as an interesting opportunity for income in the field of bioenergy. Because of the absence of well structured supply chains, this biomass is often burned in the fields in violation of current regulations on safety and emissions in the atmosphere. Looking solely at the pruning of olive groves and vineyards there is an estimated potential of 2.6 million tons of residues nationally, 1.5 tons of olive tree woody residues and 1.2 of vineshoot residues. These data were the result of a study conducted some years ago by ITABIA, the Italian Biomass Association, and FederUnacoma in connection by the ENAMA and MIPAAF Biomass Project. A project aimed at spurring work on an agro-energy supply chain with financing for the innovative energy conversion and furthering information on facilitating the availability of local biogenic resources. The same study found that for the availability of this biomass the Puglia Region is one of the Italian regions with the greatest vocation. In fact, that in the five Puglia provinces olive and vineyard pruning each year comes to 700,000 tons of residues, 25% more than the national quantity estimates. Thus we are looking at a very real supply of renewable resources ready to be made more valuable in the best way.
Needed for moving from theory to practice is someone with a degree of a pioneer spirit who will go to work on successful models which can be easily copied in countless similar settings.
This is the case of the Agritoppi enterprise in Lucera in the Foggia Province which staged a demonstration on February 6 on how agro-energy can become a strong point for agricultural operations when integrated with traditional crop productions. Taking part were a number of local farmers organized in connection with the Europe H2020 uP_running project. Supporting the event were also University of Foggia Department of Agrarian Sciences, Food and the Environment, an ITABIA member, and DARe.
Massimo Monteleone on the University of Foggia staff and Antonio Baselice, a young businessman managing the company who provided a briefing with information on the experience of Agritoppi and gave details on the organization of the agro-energy supply chain and its feasibility. A visit in the field followed with a demonstration of the various phases leading to the production of agripellets. Those present were able to witness the work of various technologies in the machinery and plant in the supply chain beginning with agricultural mechanization for collecting the residues with an efficient mulcher-loader built by Nobili (see Box) and the subsequent transformation of the materials into agripellets at the rate of 400 kg/h using the refined biomass and on to final combustion in domestic type stoves.
Antonio Baselice, with a University of Foggia degree in Agrarian Sciences, explained the knowledge he acquired while writing his thesis, Raising Financial Value of Agricultural Residues for Bio-Energy Production. He reported that at present, management is open to innovation, family farming is strengthened by going multi-functional. Work on promoting the agripellet supply chain has also required specific latest generation agricultural machinery for operations by contractors for gathering the pruning residues in vineyards and fruit orchards in limited farm areas in general. This will be welcomed as a way to bring in contractors to collect their biomass residue to avoid the labor and fuel costs association with this management.
The Nobili firm
The manufacturer Nobili was established in 1945 for the production of diaphragm pumps and began turning out their first mulchers in the 1960s to diversify with more than 100 models of these machines. The company markets various models for the efficient collection pruning residues in tree plantations to exploit their energy use. For this purpose and for the experimental use on the farm enterprise for Agritoppi, Nobili designed and patented the sidelong collector. This is a device mounted on the frame of the TRP semi-mounted mulcher in various work widths, from 120, 145 and 175 cm. The collector works as a front pick-up for lifting the pruned branches with a rotor equipped with powerful hammers for refining them. The materials mulched by the sidelong collector are driven by a conveyer fan which ensures uniform discharge into containers for the collection and conditioning of the biomass. The containers are made with a highly resistant permeable material allowing natural drying of the biomass and repeated use of the bags. Once the containers take on a parallelepiped shape to reduce the bulk for transport and storage they can be staked with a fork lift. After this operation, the bags can be installed to continue mulching to save time at work. This solution has been shown to be very versatile and able to strongly increase the production on site, especially in such periods as spring when it is essential to perform speedy production.
