Abstract
The Revised Directive EU/2023/2413 sets ambitious goals for 2030, requiring at least 42.5% of energy consumption to be supplied by renewable sources. Meeting bioenergy targets requires land allocation strategies that avoid significant competition with food production. In this context, marginal lands represent a promising solution for the cultivation of non-food energy crops, such as perennial grasses. However, assessment methods are essential to drive policymakers in land planning scenarios. This study proposes a cradle-to-gate life cycle assessment built on top of the ARUNGRO crop model to compare the environmental impacts of two lignocellulosic energy crops - giant reed and Miscanthus - from cultivation to the production of ethanol and biomethane. The experimental datasets represent three provinces in northern, central, and southern Italy, areas with a large extent of marginal lands and characterized by pedo-climatic and crop productivity constraints. The environmental footprint results of the agricultural phase, expressed per Mg of dry-weight biomass, identified land use change and human toxicity (carcinogenic) as the main hotspot impact categories out of sixteen, largely associated with annual harvesting operation for perennial grasses. Per GJ basis, biomethane outperforms ethanol, with central Italy showing the most favourable performance for both biofuels. The case study explores a projected 2044 deployment scenario, providing valuable insights into long-term environmental performance of perennial energy crops over 20-years. Overall, the findings highlight the importance of energy species production in marginal lands as optimal solutions for inedible feedstock intended for energy production. Policy reflections are offered at both European and national levels.
Abstract from the paper’s OpenAlex record; open copy licensed cc-by-nc-nd. Read at the source ↗
The text the model read, with the source record’s inline markup (italics, sub- and superscripts) rendered and its character entities decoded; quote offsets refer to the raw text.
Claims 4
Claim · model-written summary
Land use change and human toxicity (carcinogenic) were the main hotspot impact categories out of sixteen, largely associated with annual harvesting of perennial grasses.
Verbatim
e0“identified land use change and human toxicity (carcinogenic) as the main hotspot impact categories out of sixteen, largely associated with annual harvesting operation for perennial grasses”
Claim · model-written summary
Per GJ, biomethane outperforms ethanol in environmental performance.
- Taxon
- giant reed and Miscanthus
Arundo donax
Miscanthust0 - Treatment
- biomethanee0
- Outcome
- outperformse0
- Direction
- outperformse0
- Qualifier
- Per GJ basise0
- Comparator
- ethanole0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Per GJ basis, biomethane outperforms ethanol”
t0“giant reed and Miscanthus”
Claim · model-written summary
Central Italy shows the most favourable environmental performance for both biofuels.
- Taxon
- giant reed and MiscanthusArundo donaxMiscanthust0
- Outcome
- performancee0
- Direction
- most favourablee0
- Setting
- central Italye0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“central Italy showing the most favourable performance for both biofuels”
t0“giant reed and Miscanthus”
Claim · model-written summary
Energy species production in marginal lands is an optimal solution for inedible feedstock intended for energy production.
Verbatim
e0“the importance of energy species production in marginal lands as optimal solutions for inedible feedstock intended for energy production”