Environmental assessment of energy valorisation of residual agrofood industry biomass in Sicily: a life cycle approach

Anaerobic digestion (AD) uses biomass to produce biogas to generate heat and/or electricity. Several studies have reported that the adoption of AD may not necessarily lead to sustainable practices. For example, energy crops may cause significant impact due to the requirement of intensive agricultural practices. Then, residual biomasses are starting to be considered as alternative biomass for energy valorisation trough AD. In this context, this study assesses the potential environmental impacts related to the energy valorisation of agro-food industry waste though the Life Cycle Assessment methodology (ISO 14040). The system examined consists of a real anaerobic digester coupled with a combin…