Future Perspectives for Bio-Energy Production in the Province of Turin

The present work investigates waste management in the Province of Turin and discusses different policy instruments, taking into account the potential of biogas obtained from Municipal Solid Waste (MSW), separated source collection, livestock effluents and energy crops. MSW from a large Turin landfill can produce 98.8 kWh(e)/t and the energy yearly produced correspond to 3.85% of the domestic requirements for the whole province. As far as the separated source collection is concerned, a substantial decrease in the production of biogas in land-fills has been observed. The organic fraction instead could be sent to anaeroblic digestion plants to produce energy. Finally, waste from livestock and agricultural products could make a significant contribution to energy recovery (even more than 5% of the domestic requirements).