Assessing Methane Emission and Economic Viability of Energy Exploitation in a Typical Sicilian Municipal Solid Waste Landfill

Sanitary landfills for municipal solid waste (MSW) represent one of the major anthropogenic source of GHGs emissions and are directly responsible of the climate changes we are facing nowadays. Indeed, the biodegradable organic matter of MSW undergoes anaerobic digestion producing the landfill gas (LFG), whose main components are CH4 and CO2. Therefore, biomethane energy exploitation in MSW landfills will reduce GHGs emission positively affecting the global warming. The aim of the present study was to assess the methane production in a Sicilian landfill by comparing the results from field measurements of methane emission and the estimates achieved by applying different mathematical models. A…

Upgrade of citrus waste as a biofuel via slow pyrolysis

Abstract Slow pyrolysis (200–650 °C) experiments on citrus residues (orange peel waste “OP” and lemon peel waste “LP”) were carried out in lab scale fixed bed batch reactor. Bio-oil and bio-char obtained by thermal degradation are more stable, more homogeneous and higher energy content fuels when compared to the parent feedstock. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) showed higher stability of LP waste, which appears related to the higher lignin content . Mass and energy yields of solid and liquid products (i.e., char and oil) were measured to determine the effects of peak temperature on feedstock. A linear correlation between Gross Calorific Value (GCV), peak temperatures and mass loss (ML) all…

Evaluation of the optimal activation parameters for almond shell bio-char production for capacitive deionization

Abstract A study on a possible new biomass waste to be used as electrode material for capacitive deionization (CDI) processes was performed. Raw almond shells were pyrolyzed at 800, 900 and 1000 °C and then activated through CO2. Carbon activation is used to develop porosity inside the material, increasing the specific surface area and the adsorption performances. In this work, authors tried to correlate the effects of pyrolysis and activation temperature on the ion storage capacity. Results from the desalination tests indicated that the best performance in terms of ion adsorption was obtained when the bio-char was activated at the temperature of 900 °C. Brunauer-Emmet-Teller (BET) and Barr…

Energy potential and CO2 budget of residual biomass in the Menfi wine district, Sicily

Energia pulita dagli scarti della produzione vitivinicola

Technical and economical feasibility of biomass use for power generation in Sicily

Biomass can provide a reliable support for production ofbiofuels while contributing to sustainable management of natural resources. Many countries, including Italy, have introduced important incentive schemes to support the use of biomass for electricity, heat and transportation. This has raised considerable interest towards the use of biomass for energy generation purposes. Nonetheless, the design and installation ofbiomass-fuelled power plants present several critical issues, such as choice and availability of biomass, choice of technology, power plant localization and logistics. The case study tackled in this paper evaluates the economies originated by a 1MW el Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC…

Assessment of bio-combustibles production via slow pyrolysis of wine industry residues

With the aim of evaluating the potential production of high energy solid and liquid bio-fuels, a laboratory scale fixed bed reactor (FBR) derived from the standard Gray-King (GK) assay test on coal was used to carry out fixed bed pyrolysis experiments on wine industry by-products. The present study provides results on the pyrolysis of grape marc, residual from wine-making process, consisting of 50% by weight of grape seeds and 50% by weight of grape skins, at temperature between 150 and 500 °C, holding time of 30 minutes. Pyrolysis mass yields of solid (char) and liquid (tar) products and their corresponding energy properties, as a function of reaction temperature, are reported and discusse…

Numerical Solution of Foodstuff Freezing Problems Using Radial Basis Functions

This work presents a novel numerical approach for the solution of time dependent non-linear freezing processes in terms of radial basis function Hermite approach. The proposed scheme is applied to a mashed potato sample during its freezing; evaluation of time evolution of the temperature profile at the core of the sample is carried out. Food thermal properties are highly dependent on temperature and the mathematical problem becomes highly non-linear and therefore particularly difficult to solve. Incorporating a Kirchhoff transformation significantly reduces the non-linearity. The robustness of the scheme is tested by comparison with experimental results available in literature.

Creatività territoriale per lo sviluppo

Reactivity of cellulose during hydrothermal carbonization of lignocellulosic biomass

Abstract Hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) of pure cellulose (CE) and birchwood (BW) samples was carried out at temperatures between 160 and 280 °C, 0.5 h residence time and biomass-to-water ratio 1:5, to investigate the reactivity of cellulose in lignocellulosic biomass. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) showed that the CE samples remained unaltered at temperatures up to 220 °C, but were significantly decomposed at 230 °C producing a thermal recalcitrant aromatic and high energy-dense material. FTIR showed that dehydration and aromatization reactions occurred at temperature equal or higher than 230 °C for the CE samples while a similar incre…