This paper describes ESCO approaches and business models for biomass heating and CHP generation. State of the art, policy measures and main barriers towards the implementation of such ESCO operations in Italy are discussed. Moreover, on the basis of the proposed framework, representative case...

The growing olive oil consumption recently raised the interest for the international olive oil trade, increasing the complexity of the market. Profits attracted multinational industries and corporations, whose interest crosses the National borders, influencing trade relationships. At the same...

<em>Capitale sociale e performance economica: un’applicazione al sistema di produzione dell’olio extra-vergine di oliva biologico della provincia di Bari</em> - Social capital and economic firm performances: an application to the organic extravirgin olive oil net-chain in the province of Bari The...

This paper aims at showing the explanatory potential of network methods applied to the analysis of Country level competitiveness within specific productive sectors. More specifically, we focused on each Country’s position within the network of international commodity trade relationships,...

<Emphasis Type="Bold">Background: There are many reasons why an investigator may choose to share results with survey respondents; however, the practice is not universal. Moreover, while there is some evidence that the practice increases response rates, it is of limited generalizability. <Emphasis Type="Bold">Objective: The aim of this...</emphasis></emphasis>

An optimisation-based decision support methodology is presented for the synthesis of energy supply systems on the conceptual level. Previous work in this field has tended to focus on the generation of the single optimal solution. However, given that mathematical models never perfectly represent...

This paper presents the novel MILP formulation of the Biomass Value Chain Model (BVCM), a comprehensive and flexible optimisation toolkit that models a large number of bioenergy system pathways. The model accounts for the economic and environmental impacts associated with the end-to-end elements...

Biomass-derived fuels can contribute to energy sustainability through diversifying energy supply and mitigating carbon emissions. However, the biomass chemistry poses an important challenge, i.e., the effective hydrogen to carbon ratio is significantly lower for biomass compared to petroleum,...