0000000000349002

AUTHOR

Kestutis Venslauskas

Biogas yield from Sicilian kitchen waste and cheese whey

The aim of this study is to determine the chemical composition of kitchen waste and cheese whey, as well as the biogas yield obtained from the Anaerobic Digestion (AD) tests of these two raw materials. Since the separated waste collection is performed in the town of Marineo (Palermo), a sample of kitchen waste, different from food industry one and included in the Organic Fraction of Municipal Solid Waste (OFMSW), was collected from the mass stored at the households of this town. Moreover, a sample of cheese whey was collected in a Sicilian mini dairy plant, where sheep milk is processed. This investigation was carried out inside laboratory digesters of Aleksandras Stulginskis University (Li…

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Tax benefits for the energy requalification of Italian real estate assets

The need for energy-efficient buildings has emerged since the onset of the first energy crises in the 1970s. It's in this decade that the concepts of sustainable development and energy saving have been introduced in the construction sector. Currently, the greatest energy saving potential for buildings does not lie in new buildings, but in the energy redevelopment of existing buildings. In order to promote interventions for building restoration, which are often costly and not economically convenient, Italian legislation has made a series of economic incentives available to the sector. This work reviews the main incentive systems for the energy requalification of buildings.

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Sicilian potential biogas production

This study is aimed at predicting the Sicilian potential biogas production, using the Organic Fraction of Municipal Solid Waste (OFMSW), animal manure and food industry by-products, in a region where only one biogas plant using MSW and one co-digestion plant are nowadays available. The statistical data about OFMSW, the number of animals bred in medium and large farms and the amounts of by-products of food processing industries were evaluated, in order to compute the Sicilian potential biogas and energy production. The OFMSW produced in Sicily, that is 0.8 million tons ca. per year (37% of MSW), could be used in a bio-reactor, together with other raw materials, for Anaerobic Digestion (AD) p…

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Life Cycle Impact Assessment applied to cactus pear crop production for generating bioenergy and biofertiliser

Among the potential uses of cactus pear, the generation of bioenergy (biogas) and biofertiliser (digestate), from the Anaerobic Digestion (AD) of cladodes and fruits, is surveyed in this paper. Data for Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) was drawn from a farm located in Roccapalumba (Palermo, Sicily, Italy), where three cultivars were cultivated: 1) yellow pulp cultivar; 2) red pulp cultivar; 3) white pulp cultivar. LCIA was applied to six scenarios: 1) current dry crop; 2) current irrigated crop; 3) dry crop for fruit and bioenergy production; 4) irrigated crop for fruit and bioenergy production; 5) dry crop for bioenergy production; 6) irrigated crop for bioenergy production. According t…

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Assessment of organic waste management methods through energy balance

In Italy, the Organic Fraction of Municipal Solid W aste (OFMSW) is nowadays landfilled or processed through aerobic composting. The Italian towns curre ntly support a high cost for OFMSW disposal and cause a high environmental impact, because of long distance s travelled from towns to a few available landfills and fewer treatment places, as well as the used waste m anagement methods. An interesting option for OFMSW is Anaerobic Digestion (AD), producing biogas and “digestate”. In this survey a theoretical biogas plant was placed near a town of Sicily Region (Italy), centra lised with reference to the area considered for pro ducing OFMSW. The distances travelled every year to transport OFMS…

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