Aspect of GHG limitation and local impact sustainability concerning the energy from biomass

The production of energy from biomass with different operating schemes (biogas production and utilization, gasification, direct combustion) is highly suggested in account of its positive aspects as concerns GHG limitation and right destination of residual or waste materials, but its local effects as concerns surrounding air quality, use of natural resources and land destination are a great reason of concern for local authorities and population of exposed areas. In order to establish a positive path that at the same leads to global positive results in the first concern without negative local problems, it is very important to evaluate the territorial aspects; in particular it is very important the possibility to fully utilize the produced energy, chiefly as concerns the co-generated thermal power, to substitute polluting conventional energy sources, and consequently to be able to respect the critical limits of local acceptance in terms of air quality. A procedure of definition in this sense has been applied for two Italian regions (Piemonte in the North, Lucania in the South), with a specific evaluation of advantages and limits. It is also very important to evaluate the energy production potentialities of the considered territories, as concerns forestry regulation, utilization of agricultural or organic residues, improvement in agricultural bio-energy crops exploitation: the right evaluation of the possibility of local production of energy is a very important step in the global definition of the energetic planning of the considered areas, with consideration of environmental limits and advantages. In order to arrive to the indicated result, it is necessary to start from analytical inventory of the actual and potential destination of territory and land use, and to consider also the possibility to use conventional or innovative solutions to obtain electric energy that can be transferred to the national network, thermal energy that can be utilized for district hating or for technological local activities, or also biofuels (biogas, potentially biomethane after up-grading, second generation bio-ethanol, biodiesel). The global energetic potentiality of a considered territory must be compared to the local needs of the corresponding area, in order to establish the meaning of the proposed solutions in the general framework of an energy regional plan. The construction of a mass balance as concerns original materials, by-products, wastes, the definition of consumptions of water and chemicals, and the emission in the atmosphere or the generation of wastewater or residuals is required in order to establish the local acceptability of the proposed solutions; the consideration of the energy balances, and also the evaluation of LCA for the whole scenario are the right instruments that must be utilized in order to evaluate the interactions of biomass energy plants with the global environment. These instruments have been considered for the above-mentioned specific territorial cases that concern very different regions of Italy; it was important to observe differences in bio-energy meaning in the global framework of the regional energetic planning of the two considered areas, and also to evaluate the aspects of compatibility in different geographic and structural situations. More in general, it was possible to establish the high meaning of this form of energy in the perspective of limitation in GHG emissions, and at the same time the possibility, with a careful localization of the plants and right technological assessment and exploitation of the produced energy, to obtain a result that can be considered acceptable also from the local compatibility point of view