A full economic analysis of switchgrass under different scenarios in Italy estimated by BEE model

dc.contributor.author	Monti, A	en
dc.contributor.author	Fazio, S	en
dc.contributor.author	Lychnaras, V	en
dc.contributor.author	Soldatos, P	en
dc.contributor.author	Venturi, G	en
dc.date.accessioned	2014-06-06T06:47:34Z
dc.date.available	2014-06-06T06:47:34Z
dc.date.issued	2007	en
dc.identifier.issn	09619534	en
dc.identifier.uri	http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biombioe.2006.09.001	en
dc.identifier.uri	http://62.217.125.90/xmlui/handle/123456789/3691
dc.subject	BEE	en
dc.subject	Biomass	en
dc.subject	Economic analysis	en
dc.subject	Energy	en
dc.subject	P. virgatum	en
dc.subject	Switchgrass	en
dc.subject.other	Biomass	en
dc.subject.other	Computer simulation	en
dc.subject.other	Costs	en
dc.subject.other	Marketing	en
dc.subject.other	Economic analysis	en
dc.subject.other	Selling price	en
dc.subject.other	Plants (botany)	en
dc.subject.other	Biomass	en
dc.subject.other	Computer simulation	en
dc.subject.other	Costs	en
dc.subject.other	Marketing	en
dc.subject.other	Plants (botany)	en
dc.subject.other	biomass power	en
dc.subject.other	computer simulation	en
dc.subject.other	data set	en
dc.subject.other	economic analysis	en
dc.subject.other	environmental conditions	en
dc.subject.other	grass	en
dc.subject.other	market conditions	en
dc.subject.other	monocotyledon	en
dc.subject.other	sensitivity analysis	en
dc.subject.other	Eurasia	en
dc.subject.other	Europe	en
dc.subject.other	Italy	en
dc.subject.other	Southern Europe	en
dc.subject.other	Medicago sativa	en
dc.subject.other	Panicum virgatum	en
dc.subject.other	Zea mays	en
dc.title	A full economic analysis of switchgrass under different scenarios in Italy estimated by BEE model	en
heal.type	journalArticle	en
heal.identifier.primary	10.1016/j.biombioe.2006.09.001	en
heal.publicationDate	2007	en
heal.abstract	Three different scenarios of switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) cultivation (high, mild and low) in two different environmental conditions (North and South Italy) were economically analysed by the computerized model BEE. The dataset was mostly generated from an 8.6 ha field of switchgrass planted in 2002 at the University of Bologna (North Italy). Annual equivalent costs (AEC) and break-even yield (BEY, i.e. the dry matter yield at which cost equals selling price) of each scenario were calculated to assess the feasibility of each scenario. AEC ranged from €511 to €1.257 ha -1 being always higher in northern than southern regions. As expected, BEY varied to an extent depending on input levels. BEY was clearly higher under intensive cropping systems (H S) compared to mild-(M S) and low-input (L S) scenarios. However, even for M S or L S, BEY generally exceeded the harvested yield. Therefore, we can conclude that, at the market price of €55 Mg -1 (dry basis), switchgrass can be hardly grown both in North and South Italy. However, the biomass market price appeared surprisingly underestimated if compared to the unit energy price of crude oil, therefore a desirable increase of biomass price could be expected in the next few years. Sensitivity analysis showed that biomass price strongly affects BEY, and this was especially found in H S. Furthermore, the differences in BEY between L S and H S clearly decreased with increasing market prices. Therefore, H S could be better indicated than L S at high market prices. Switchgrass was found to be more profitable than some conventional crops to an extent depending on the yield higher than BEY (Y i). At the current biomass price, Y i was from less than 1 Mg ha -1 (maize and alfalfa) to more than 4 Mg ha -1 (sugarbeet). © 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.	en
heal.journalName	Biomass and Bioenergy	en
dc.identifier.issue	4	en
dc.identifier.volume	31	en
dc.identifier.doi	10.1016/j.biombioe.2006.09.001	en
dc.identifier.spage	177	en
dc.identifier.epage	185	en