Assessment of Energy Chains for Distributed Generation: Agricultural and Thermoeconomic Analyses within Emilia-Romagna Region

The process which includes production, collection, carriage and transformation of biomass into renewable fuels and then into energy (both electrical and thermal) involves a large number of decisions to select the most efficient chain. In this paper, the contribution margin of four different energy chains is evaluated both in terms of profits and energy gain per unit of cultivated surface. Four widely cultivated crops in Europe (corn, rapeseed, soybean and sunflower) are considered as feedstock. Four technologies are taken into consideration as conversion plants: (i) anaerobic digestion with internal combustion engines, (ii) direct combustion with Organic Rankine Cycle, (iii) gasification with internal combustion engines, and (iv) straight vegetable oil combustion within internal combustion engines.