"Agroforestry Biomass Availability Assessment in Umbria Region. Preliminary Results"

Biomass resources vary depending on environmental characteristics, that influence Net Ecosystem Production (NEP), biomass is also dispersed through the territory. Estimating availability of biomass resources is important to assess bioenergy production potential and so bioenergy contribution to annual energy demand. In this paper residual biomass resources are analyzed, such as agricultural residues (straw, prunings), agroindustry residues (olive husk, vinasse) and forestry residues. Biomasses availability is estimated based on main product production, using correlation indexes. Forestry biomass production can be estimated using annual biomass increment of different forestry typologies. Once availability has been measured, biomass energetic content is used to predict the potentially obtainable energy, depending on best conversion technology. Results are produced for each common of Umbria Region, that represents the ideal basin of agroforestry biomass production. The obtained data are stored on Geographical Information System (GIS) and can be used for bioenergy chain managing and design.