FIUSIS, A BIOMASS POWER PLANT FUELLED EXCLUSIVELY BY OLIVE TREE PRUNINGS. A CASE STUDY IN THE AGROINLOG H2020 PROJECT Luigi Pari 1 , Vincenzo Alfano 1* , Alessandro Suardi 1 , Nadia Palmieri 1 Emmanouil Karampinis 2 , Marcello Piccinni 3 1 Council for Agricultural Research and Economics, Research Center for Engineering and Agro-Food Processing (CREA-IT) Via della Pascolare, 16. 00015 Monterotondo (Rome) – ITALY 2 Centre for Research and Technology Hellas (CERTH) - Thermi (Thessaloniki-Greece) 3 FIUSIS Srl - Calimera (Lecce-Italy) *Corresponding author: Vincenzo Alfano, vincenzo.alfano@crea.gov.it. ABSTRACT: In the framework of the AGROinLOG H2020 Project, the Research Centre for Engineering and Agro- Food processing of CREA was in charge of supporting the birth of a new olive tree prunings-based energy chain in the Greek Region of Fthiotida (Central Greece), with particular regard to the pruning harvesting phase. Despite the huge areas of olive grow plantations, such bioenergy chains have never taken off anywhere in the Country. On the contrary in Italy the are several practical examples of pruning utilization for energy purposes. Among these, the 1 MWe plant active in Calimera (Lecce), named Fiusis, is the first biomass power plant in the world to use exclusively olive tree prunings as a fuel source. Fiusis has been identified as a reference model to be followed in the organization of the production chain to set up in Greece. This paper reports the key elements that allowed Fiusis to achieve the success highlighting its environmental, economic and social integration with the local territory. The main technical elements of the biomass plant, the supply chain management and the operational parameters of the harvesting machineries are described. Moreover, the first achievements obtained in Greece in transferring the “Fiusis model” are reported. Keywords: bioenergy, biomass, agricultural residues, biopower plant 1 INTRODUCTION For a long time 2020 year has represented the reference date for important goals for the protection of our planet. Many of these goals have been achieved, but new and more ambitious goals have been set in the EU 2030 framework for climate and energy policies [1]. Bioenergy is expected to contribute greatly with around 50% of overall renewable energy production, but in a more sustainable way [2]. According to this scenario, the European policy for energy limits the use of biomass crops for energy purposes, promoting the utilization of agroforestry residues and by-products [3]. In Italy these guidelines are transposed in the new support scheme that incentives greatly small-scale biomass plants supplied with residues and by-products (Decree 23 June 2016 on non-photovoltaic RES). In this framework the exploitation of agricultural residues is crucial in the development of a sustainable bioenergy. Among the agricultural residues, prunings residues are a good quality feedstock hugely available [4]. In Europe pruning biomass available yearly is more than 13 million tons; about 80% are located in the Mediterranean area and most of them in Italy and Spain [5]. In Italy, only olive groves make available more than 2.6 Mt pruning biomass yearly [6]. According to Acampora et al. [7] up to 7 tonnes per hectare per year of green prunings are available in Apulia Region where about 33% of the Italian olive groves are concentrated [8]. Although it is an abundant biomass resource, the exploitation of tree prunings for energy purposes is still limited. On the contrary, prunings are usually disposed through open-air burning which is a costly practice and environmental harmful [9]. From some years now, in the area surrounding Calimera municipality (Lecce) in Southern Italy the olive tree prunings are no more a disposal problem. Since 2010 a 1MWe biomass plant fueled exclusively with local olive tree prunings is running. The power plant, called Fiusis from the ancient Greek word “Physis” meaning “Nature”, is a unique in Europe circular economy model turning agricultural waste into energy [10]. Fiusis plant become a case study in the framework of the AGROinLOG Project (Horizon 2020, Grant Agreement No 727961), aimed at demonstrating the technical, environmental and economic feasibility of Integrated Biomass Logistic Centres (IBLC) for the development of new value chains based on agricultural waste and by-products. Within the AGROinLOG Project, the Italian partner CREA - Research Centre for Engineering and Agro-Food processing, was in charge of supporting the birth of a new olive tree prunings-based energy chain in the Greek region of Fthiotida (Central Greece), with particular regard to the pruning harvesting phase. Despite huge olive groves areas, these bioenergy chains have never taken off anywhere in the Country [11]. On the contrary in Italy the are several examples of pruning utilization mainly for heating, either for household or for industrial purposes. Among these examples, Fiusis plant is the only one to use exclusively olive tree pruning to produce electricity and heat. Due to its uniqueness, Fiusis plant has been identified as a reference model to analyze and show in order to support the organization of the new production chain in Greece where moreover the climatic characteristics and crop management are very similar to that of the southern Italy. Two technical visits for Greek partners were organized to show them first-hand the plant characteristics, the harvesting systems running, and the supply chain organization adopted by Fiusis. Moreover, experimental trials were performed both in Italy and Greece in order to evaluate the performance and work quality of the machines involved in the pruning harvesting. After the involvement in the AGROinLOG Project, Fiusis became a “Flagship success case” in the uP- Running Project (Horizon 2020, Grant Agreement No 691748) as the first known case of small-scale power plant using only olive tree prunings as fuel [12]. 28th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 6-9 July 2020, Virtual 977