Circular Economy Model: Insights from a Case Study in South Italy

Abstract

This study aims to analyze the economic and environmental sustainability of a case study of an energy power plant that produces electricity from pruning residues of olive groves from nine municipalities in southern Italy. To assess the economic sustainability of the agro-energetic chain, the profitability and efficiency ratios are calculated. Moreover, the GHG emissions of the agro-energetic pruning supply chain due to both the pruning collection at the field level, and their combustion for energy production at the power plant, are calculated. To put together the environmental and economic evaluations, the ecoefficiency ratio was calculated to measure the value added per 1Mg of GHG emitted into the atmosphere. The findings show the whole agro-energetic chain, namely the power plant and the collection company have both a good return on owner’s equity (ROE) ratio (15.89% and 31.48%, respectively) and ROI ratio (4.34% and 6.14% respectively). Moreover, the power plant’s ecoefficiency ratio (2.64€ per 1Mg of GHG) is slightly lower than harvest firm one (2.91€ per 1Mg of GHG). The findings could be useful to develop new business models based on the circular economy concept. In fact, the business model proposed could push entrepreneurs towards new income opportunities, at the same time, helping local farms and reducing the environmental impacts.

A GIS Approach to Locate a Small Size Biomass Plant Powered by Olive Pruning and to Estimate Supply Chain Costs

“…Before trying to make a comparison with previous studies' results, it is important to underline that there are few examples in the literature with which to make a comparison with the present study, because, as reported by Palmieri et al [55], Fiusis represents a very particular power plant in the European context.…”

“…Practically, this is not always true. For instance, Fiusis acknowledged that it can gather approximately 30% of the total annual biomass available in its supply basin [55], as not all farmers contribute to the supply of biomass. Hence, the overall estimated supply chain costs in B and C resulted as more trustable in the view of future development of the pruning supply chain.…”

“…The higher cost obtained is due to the different management system applied in olive groves which affects negatively the pruning yield per surface unit. In fact, in the Apulia region, the pruning operation is usually carried out every three years [55] and the pruning yield is usually in the range of 4-7 Mg fm ha −1 year −1 [11,58], thus substantially higher than in the Lazio context. Therefore, when the costs per unit of biomass in the Lazio supply chain are calculated, higher values are unavoidable since the harvesting costs per surface unit are considered as fixed.…”

“…Relying on that information, it was possible to identify the suitable areas according to the following criterion: a suitable sub area is the area where the harvestable amount of pruning biomass every year is at least 8000 Mg fm . This threshold of 8000 Mg fm is taken from data from Fiusis, which is annually powered by this amount of biomass [55].…”

Increasing the Content of Olive Mill Wastewater in Biogas Reactors for a Sustainable Recovery: Methane Productivity and Life Cycle Analyses of the Process

“…In this sense, and in the case of life cycle studies applied to olive oil production, the most challenging direction is to investigate which production methods can represent viable alternatives to optimize a functioning circular economic system by evaluating the way to convert agricultural by-products into energy or into valuable material fractions. For example, Palmieri et al [ 20 ] analyzed the economic and environmental sustainability of an agri-energy chain from pruning residues of olive groves in nine municipalities in southern Italy; Uceda-Rodríguez et al [ 21 ] evaluated the environmental benefits linked to the production of artificial inert materials created with olive pomace as an alternative to the final disposal of this waste in a landfill; Moreno et al [ 22 ] quantified environmental and economic indexes related to different innovative processes of the conversion of biomass coming from olive pruning residues into energy; finally, Batuecasa et al [ 23 ] conducted an LCA of olive oil production by-products by analyzing both anaerobic digestion and conventional disposal on the soil ( Table 1 ).…”