Technologies and Plants for Renewable Energy in Agriculture

The purpose of this lectures is to analyze the main supply chains from the point of view of mechanization and plants, in order to evaluate the sustainability of the most common bioenergy production processes.
The analysis will be conducted on the following processes:
- the use of livestock waste, dedicated crops (corn, soybeans, sorghum, triticale, oilseeds), agro-industrial by-products and OFMSW for the production of biogas / biomethane;
- the production of pure vegetable oils, biodiesel and bioethanol (liquid biofuels);
- the cogeneration of electricity and heat;
- the installation of photovoltaic parks;
- the use of solar energy for heating and drying;
- the wood supply chain, wood biomass, wood chips, pellets.

At the end of these lectures the student will be able to carry out an in-depth analysis of the renewable energy sector to understand when it can actually contribute to the reduction of the dependence on fossil energy and to the contrast of climate change, and when instead it has a negative impact, both economically and environmentally.
The student will be able to apply this method of analysis to the different production processes that can be classified as agroenergy, a very heterogeneous sector, with processes, products, supply chains and technologies that generate completely different benefits and impacts.
Finally, the student will be able to analyze the impacts that the energy "drift" of agriculture can generate on food availability, on land uses and on the economy of rural areas.