0000000000293846
AUTHOR
Michele Massimo Mammano
Biowaste in a circular bioeconomy in Mediterranean area: A case study of compost and vermicompost as growing substrates alternative to peat
European policies are advocating a transition toward circular bio-economy, an economy aiming at reducing the dependence from fossil-based resources, limiting greenhouse gas emissions and environmental impacts. The aim of this paper is to assess the potential for circularity for bio-waste and related by-products, to highlight the role of compost and vermicompost in the circular bioeconomy and their use in the agricultural sector. Three different substrates were tested in the soilless cultivation of Salvia officinalis, a Mediterranean nutraceutical and healthy plant: vermicompost (40%), compost (40%) and peat (100%). The average values of the main biometric parameters were calculated and comp…
Genetic variation of an Italian long shelf-life tomato (Solanum lycopersicon L.) collection by using SSR and morphological fruit traits
The recovery of ancient germplasm in tomato (Solanum lycopersicon L.) has become necessary to limit the wide genetic erosion caused by the employment of modern cultivars. Among germplasm collections, long shelf-life landraces could represent an important source of biodiversity. The present study provides a first set of molecular and phenotypic data on long shelf-life (so called "da serbo" in southern Italy) tomato collection, mainly originated from Sicily together with some landraces from Campania and Apulia. The analysis of fruit traits showed a low intra-varietal variation, while exhibiting a quite higher inter-varietal variability. Overall, the cultivars have been classified in six fruit…
Use of biochar as peat substitute for growing substrates of Euphorbia × lomi potted plants
Biochar from conifers wood was used in soilless culture as growing substrate alternative to peat for ornamental crops. Potted plants of Euphorbia × lomi Rauh cv. ‘Ilaria’ were grown with different mixtures (v:v) of brown peat and biochar in order to evaluate main physical and chemical characteristics of this biomaterial as well as its effect on plant growth, ornamental characteristics and nutrients uptake. Biochar addition to peat increased pH, EC and K content of the growing substrates, as well as air content and bulk density. Biochar content of substrates significantly affected plant growth and biomass partitioning: higher number of shoots and leaves, leaf area and leaf dry weight were re…
Effects of Vermicompost, Compost and Digestate as Commercial Alternative Peat-Based Substrates on Qualitative Parameters of Salvia officinalis
Peat is a common substrate used for the cultivation of potted plants. However, the use of peat in horticulture has recently been questioned from an environmental standpoint, since it is a non-renewable resource and plays a major role in atmospheric CO2 sequestration. The aim of this work was to assess the potentialities of substrates obtained from vermicompost, compost and anaerobic digestion processes to partially substitute peat for sage (Salvia officinalis L.) cultivation. Therefore, we planned an experiment to assess the effect of these substrates on essential oil (EO) yield and composition, as well as on leaf nutrients concentration of sage plants. The three substrates were mixed with …
Sustainable Valorisation of Biowaste for Soilless Cultivation of Salvia Officinalis in a Circular Bioeconomy
The aim of this work is to assess the usefulness of biowaste deriving from CircularBioeconomy (CBE) processes (i.e., vermicompost, compost and digestate), as growing substratesfor the partial or total replacement of peat, by measuring the vegetation biometric parameters ofsage (Salvia officinalis L.)&mdash
A Contribution to Environmental Protection Through the Valorisation of Kitchen Biowaste
The worldwide interest in Renewable Energy Sources (RES) is gathering momentum. Anaerobic Digestion (AD) process is steadily growing, as more people are setting up bioreactors in order to produce biogas and digestate. AD process is the fermentation of solid biowaste in the absence of oxygen and is zero emission, i.e. it is CO2 neutral. The aim of this work is to test HomeBiogas 2.0, i.e. a revolutionary equipment that used the kitchen biowaste from the canteen of the agricultural institute of Marsala (Trapani, Italy). This equipment works as a continuous flow bioreactor: the waste is fed in one end, while biogas and digestate come out from the other. The process continuously took place at a…
Comparison of Mechanical, Assisted and Manual Harvest of Origanum vulgare L.
In Italy, the production of Origanum vulgare L. is lower than the national market demand, so there is an increasing interest in this crop, even if the manual harvest and bunch binding represent ca. 60% of the production cost. The aim of this work is to evaluate the harvest efficiency, as well as the working capacity, productivity and quality of mechanical harvesting by means of a reaper-binder designed for cereal and forage crops and assisted harvesting by means of a long-reach edge trimmer. In fact, the final aim is to suggest a machine and a method for oregano harvesting that could significantly reduce the time and, therefore, the cost of this crop operation, while achieving a product qua…
Case Study of Potential Production of Renewable Energy Sources (RES) from Livestock Wastes in Mediterranean Islands
The aim of this work is to evaluate the potential production of Renewable Energy Sources (RES) from livestock wastes that are commonly found on Mediterranean islands, by using the island of Malta as a case study. Organic wastes in the form of livestock manure and slurry, as well as other by-products originating from the food transformation industry in the making of alcoholic beverages and the processing of olives, tomatoes and other streams, if mixed in such a way to achieve a correct C/N ratio, can be subjected to anaerobic co-digestion for the production of biogas and digestate. Biogas can be further transformed into biomethane, a fuel that can be used to power surface transportation and …
Potential production of biogas from prinkly pear (opuntia ficus-indica L.) in sicilian uncultivated areas
The aim of this work is to evaluate the potential production of biogas and, indirectly, biomethane or electric and thermal energy, from prinkly pear (Opuntia ficus-indica L.), to be grown in a part of Sicilian uncultivated areas and co-digested together with the available livestock manure and slurry. In order to increase the Renewable Energy Sources (RES) and reduce the dependency from fossil ones, the conversion of biomass into biogas through Anaerobic Digestion (AD) process is paramount for producing biomethane, to be used as fuel for means of transport and agricultural machines or heating, or electric and thermal energy through Combined Heat and Power (CHP) plants. Moreover, the digestat…
Innovation for the Italian agricultural and food industry sector
The food industry is one of the largest energy consumers in the world, with 95 EJ/year. In this context, in Europe the amount of energy needed to cultivate, process, package and bring food to the homes of citizens reached 285 Mtoe in 2015, of which 14 Mtoe due to the Italian agricultural and food system. With the aim of favoring a drastic reduction in energy consumption, the European Commission, and the main international agencies, ie: FAO, OECD, UN over the last decade have aligned on the need to develop policies to support energy efficiency, renewable energies and sustainable technologies in order to minimize the use of fossil fuels and to reduce the final energy consumption, especially i…