attivita
innovation for renovation
Agro-Energy
Processes transforming vegetable biomass into energy have long being used on an industrial scale with a variety of technologies. Energy can be achieved from solid biomass through direct combustion, or by extracting gaseous or liquid fuel therefrom by means of gasification or pyrolysis. Plants producing biogas from fermentable biomass through anaerobic digestion are now widespread. Oil crops like palm, rapeseed, sunflower, soybean can be crushed into liquid fuel for direct combustion, for use in endothermic engines or either to produce biodiesel by means of esterification.
Asja is working on many fronts to develop biomass-to electricity processes:
Vegetable Oils
Asja has already set up the first vegetable oil fed cogeneration plant; in this field, research is targeted at improving technologies for generating energy and treating/purifying burning oils.
Anaerobic Digestion
Asja is engaged in optimizing treatment processes for biomass of different origins such as agri-food industry waste and the organic fraction of urban solid waste. Moreover, innovative processes like “dark fermentation” which can lead to hydrogen production and to enhanced energy efficiency for the whole production cycle are currently being tested.
Woody/cellulosic biomass
Energy can be generated from woody/cellulosic biomass by means of well established technologies whereby biomass is directly combusted and used through ORC (Organic Rankine Cycle) turbines, or by means of gasification. Asja is also interested in testing and seeking agronomic optimization of biomass-producing crops. Special focus is given to Short Rotation Forestry, that is short-cycle tree crops such as poplar, willow, robinia, eucalyptus or pauwlonia, or annual grass crops like miscanthus , switchgrass, wild cane, thistle and fiber sorghum.
Algae
Amongst the most innovative energetic biomass which are somehow in a less advanced stage of development, algae are certainly interesting and hold great potential, for a number of reasons including:
- the quantity and quality of the biomass they can produce: according to the literature, their yield per hectare is higher than that of soil-grown crops;
- their low environmental impact: to produce the same amount of biomass algae require less space, they do not need agriculturally suitable soil nor potable water, hence they can be grown in environmentally poorer areas with less economic and environmental resources;
- he possibility to use them as biodepurators in heat plants: fumes from thermoelectric power plants (such as internal combustion generator sets) contain CO, CO2 and nitrate oxides: these molecules have polluting effects when released into the atmosphere, but can instead be absorbed by vegetals during growth. Therefore, algae crops can be useful in fumes treatment by abating their polluting charge while at the same time drawing essential nutrients therefrom.
