Life Cycle Analysis of wood pellet from SRC through direct measuring of energy consumption

In Italy wood pellet is experiencing some difficulties because of the lack of sawdust (the principal raw material) at cheap prices. For this reason it is interesting to evaluate the possibility of producing this biofuel from Short Rotation Forestry. The paper describes the environmental impact assessment of wood pellet production from dedicated energy crops (poplar) through a Life Cycle Analysis carried out using a detailed LCA software (Simparo 6.0). The life cycle was considered from the agricultural phase to the grinding and pelletising process ending with the combustion of the pellet in a household boiler. Transportation of wood and pellets were also considered. In particular, for the pellet production process mass and energy flows were measured on an existing Italian pelleting plant, while other data were obtained from the Literature. The study shows that agricultural operations account for most of the environmental impact and that the overall impact is considerably less than the one caused by natural gas heating.