IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v12y2020i8p3466-d349757.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Circular Economy Model: Insights from a Case Study in South Italy

Author

Listed:
  • Nadia Palmieri

    (CREA Research Centre for Engineering and Agro-Food Processing, 00015 Rome, Italy)

  • Alessandro Suardi

    (CREA Research Centre for Engineering and Agro-Food Processing, 00015 Rome, Italy)

  • Vincenzo Alfano

    (CREA Research Centre for Engineering and Agro-Food Processing, 00015 Rome, Italy)

  • Luigi Pari

    (CREA Research Centre for Engineering and Agro-Food Processing, 00015 Rome, Italy)

Abstract

This study aims to analyze the economic and environmental sustainability of a case study of an energy power plant that produces electricity from pruning residues of olive groves from nine municipalities in southern Italy. To assess the economic sustainability of the agro-energetic chain, the profitability and efficiency ratios are calculated. Moreover, the GHG emissions of the agro-energetic pruning supply chain due to both the pruning collection at the field level, and their combustion for energy production at the power plant, are calculated. To put together the environmental and economic evaluations, the ecoefficiency ratio was calculated to measure the value added per 1Mg of GHG emitted into the atmosphere. The findings show the whole agro-energetic chain, namely the power plant and the collection company have both a good return on owner’s equity (ROE) ratio (15.89% and 31.48%, respectively) and ROI ratio (4.34% and 6.14% respectively). Moreover, the power plant’s ecoefficiency ratio (2.64€ per 1Mg of GHG) is slightly lower than harvest firm one (2.91€ per 1Mg of GHG). The findings could be useful to develop new business models based on the circular economy concept. In fact, the business model proposed could push entrepreneurs towards new income opportunities, at the same time, helping local farms and reducing the environmental impacts.

Suggested Citation

  • Nadia Palmieri & Alessandro Suardi & Vincenzo Alfano & Luigi Pari, 2020. "Circular Economy Model: Insights from a Case Study in South Italy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-11, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:8:p:3466-:d:349757
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/8/3466/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/8/3466/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Won, Gu-Hwan, 2007. "Electric power industry restructuring and ROE: The case of Korea Electric Power Corporation," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(10), pages 5080-5090, October.
    2. Giuseppe Toscano & Vincenzo Alfano & Antonio Scarfone & Luigi Pari, 2018. "Pelleting Vineyard Pruning at Low Cost with a Mobile Technology," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(9), pages 1-17, September.
    3. Acampora, Andrea & Croce, Sara & Assirelli, Alberto & Del Giudice, Angelo & Spinelli, Raffaele & Suardi, Alessandro & Pari, Luigi, 2013. "Product contamination and harvesting losses from mechanized recovery of olive tree pruning residues for energy use," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 350-353.
    4. Yi, Qun & Zhao, Yingjie & Huang, Yi & Wei, Guoqiang & Hao, Yanhong & Feng, Jie & Mohamed, Usama & Pourkashanian, Mohamed & Nimmo, William & Li, Wenying, 2018. "Life cycle energy-economic-CO2 emissions evaluation of biomass/coal, with and without CO2 capture and storage, in a pulverized fuel combustion power plant in the United Kingdom," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 225(C), pages 258-272.
    5. Luigi Pari & Vincenzo Alfano & Daniel Garcia-Galindo & Alessandro Suardi & Enrico Santangelo, 2018. "Pruning Biomass Potential in Italy Related to Crop Characteristics, Agricultural Practices and Agro-Climatic Conditions," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-16, May.
    6. Thomassen, M.A. & Dolman, M.A. & van Calker, K.J. & de Boer, I.J.M., 2009. "Relating life cycle assessment indicators to gross value added for Dutch dairy farms," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(8-9), pages 2278-2284, June.
    7. Arkadiusz Dyjakon & Daniel García-Galindo, 2019. "Implementing Agricultural Pruning to Energy in Europe: Technical, Economic and Implementation Potentials," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-28, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Nadia Palmieri & Roberto Tomasone & Carla Cedrola & Daniele Puri & Mauro Pagano, 2023. "Factors Affecting Disabled Consumer Preferences for an Electric Vehicle for Rural Mobility: An Italian Experimental Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-16, March.
    2. Cristina Moliner & Elisabetta Arato & Filippo Marchelli, 2021. "Current Status of Energy Production from Solid Biomass in Southern Italy," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-21, April.
    3. Teodora Stillitano & Emanuele Spada & Nathalie Iofrida & Giacomo Falcone & Anna Irene De Luca, 2021. "Sustainable Agri-Food Processes and Circular Economy Pathways in a Life Cycle Perspective: State of the Art of Applicative Research," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-28, February.
    4. Francesco Latterini & Walter Stefanoni & Alessandro Suardi & Vincenzo Alfano & Simone Bergonzoli & Nadia Palmieri & Luigi Pari, 2020. "A GIS Approach to Locate a Small Size Biomass Plant Powered by Olive Pruning and to Estimate Supply Chain Costs," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(13), pages 1-17, July.
    5. Luigi Pari & Alessandro Suardi & Walter Stefanoni & Francesco Latterini & Nadia Palmieri, 2021. "Economic and Environmental Assessment of Two Different Rain Water Harvesting Systems for Agriculture," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-13, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Francesco Latterini & Walter Stefanoni & Alessandro Suardi & Vincenzo Alfano & Simone Bergonzoli & Nadia Palmieri & Luigi Pari, 2020. "A GIS Approach to Locate a Small Size Biomass Plant Powered by Olive Pruning and to Estimate Supply Chain Costs," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(13), pages 1-17, July.
    2. Andrea Acampora & Vincenzo Civitarese & Giulio Sperandio & Negar Rezaei, 2021. "Qualitative Characterization of the Pellet Obtained from Hazelnut and Olive Tree Pruning," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-15, July.
    3. Arkadiusz Dyjakon, 2019. "The Influence of Apple Orchard Management on Energy Performance and Pruned Biomass Harvesting for Energetic Applications," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-16, February.
    4. Mariusz Jerzy Stolarski & Michał Krzyżaniak & Kazimierz Warmiński & Dariusz Załuski & Ewelina Olba-Zięty, 2020. "Willow Biomass as Energy Feedstock: The Effect of Habitat, Genotype and Harvest Rotation on Thermophysical Properties and Elemental Composition," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-17, August.
    5. Alessandro Suardi & Francesco Latterini & Vincenzo Alfano & Nadia Palmieri & Simone Bergonzoli & Luigi Pari, 2020. "Analysis of the Work Productivity and Costs of a Stationary Chipper Applied to the Harvesting of Olive Tree Pruning for Bio-Energy Production," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-12, March.
    6. Alessandro Suardi & Francesco Latterini & Vincenzo Alfano & Nadia Palmieri & Simone Bergonzoli & Emmanouil Karampinis & Michael Alexandros Kougioumtzis & Panagiotis Grammelis & Luigi Pari, 2020. "Machine Performance and Hog Fuel Quality Evaluation in Olive Tree Pruning Harvesting Conducted Using a Towed Shredder on Flat and Hilly Fields," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-16, April.
    7. Jan Den Boer & Arkadiusz Dyjakon & Emilia Den Boer & Daniel García-Galindo & Techane Bosona & Girma Gebresenbet, 2020. "Life-Cycle Assessment of the Use of Peach Pruning Residues for Electricity Generation," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-16, May.
    8. Carlo Bisaglia & Massimo Brambilla & Maurizio Cutini & Antonio Bortolotti & Guido Rota & Giorgio Minuti & Roberto Sargiani, 2018. "Reusing Pruning Residues for Thermal Energy Production: A Mobile App to Match Biomass Availability with the Heating Energy Balance of Agro-Industrial Buildings," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-14, November.
    9. Jindřich Špička & Tomáš Vintr & Renata Aulová & Jana Macháčková, 2020. "Trade-off between the economic and environmental sustainability in Czech dual farm structure," Agricultural Economics, Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences, vol. 66(6), pages 243-250.
    10. Luigi Pari & Francesco Latterini & Walter Stefanoni, 2020. "Herbaceous Oil Crops, a Review on Mechanical Harvesting State of the Art," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-25, July.
    11. Huysveld, Sophie & Van Meensel, Jef & Van linden, Veerle & De Meester, Steven & Peiren, Nico & Muylle, Hilde & Dewulf, Jo & Lauwers, Ludwig, 2017. "Communicative farm-specific diagnosis of potential simultaneous savings in costs and natural resource demand of feed on dairy farms," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 34-45.
    12. Zhang, Xiaoyue & Huang, Guohe & Liu, Lirong & Li, Kailong, 2022. "Development of a stochastic multistage lifecycle programming model for electric power system planning – A case study for the Province of Saskatchewan, Canada," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    13. Nina Repar & Pierrick Jan & Thomas Nemecek & Dunja Dux & Martina Alig Ceesay & Reiner Doluschitz, 2016. "Local versus Global Environmental Performance of Dairying and Their Link to Economic Performance: A Case Study of Swiss Mountain Farms," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(12), pages 1-19, December.
    14. Munawar, Muhammad Assad & Khoja, Asif Hussain & Naqvi, Salman Raza & Mehran, Muhammad Taqi & Hassan, Muhammad & Liaquat, Rabia & Dawood, Usama Fida, 2021. "Challenges and opportunities in biomass ash management and its utilization in novel applications," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    15. Li, Jin & Wang, Rui & Li, Haoran & Nie, Yaoyu & Song, Xinke & Li, Mingyu & Shi, Mai & Zheng, Xinzhu & Cai, Wenjia & Wang, Can, 2021. "Unit-level cost-benefit analysis for coal power plants retrofitted with biomass co-firing at a national level by combined GIS and life cycle assessment," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 285(C).
    16. Sergio Paniagua & Alba Prado-Guerra & Ana Isabel Neto & Teresa Nunes & Luís Tarelho & Célia Alves & Luis Fernando Calvo, 2020. "Influence of Varieties and Organic Fertilizer in the Elaboration of a New Poplar-Straw Pellet and Its Emissions in a Domestic Boiler," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(23), pages 1-17, November.
    17. Monika Słupska & Arkadiusz Dyjakon & Roman Stopa, 2019. "Determination of Strength Properties of Energy Plants on the Example of Miscanthus × Giganteus , Rosa Multiflora and Salix Viminalis," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(19), pages 1-19, September.
    18. Paracchini, Maria Luisa & Bulgheroni, Claudia & Borreani, Giorgio & Tabacco, Ernesto & Banterle, Alessandro & Bertoni, Danilo & Rossi, Graziano & Parolo, Gilberto & Origgi, Roberto & De Paola, Claudio, 2015. "A diagnostic system to assess sustainability at a farm level: The SOSTARE model," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 35-53.
    19. Andrzej Greinert & Maria Mrówczyńska & Radosław Grech & Wojciech Szefner, 2020. "The Use of Plant Biomass Pellets for Energy Production by Combustion in Dedicated Furnaces," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-17, January.
    20. Moreno-Miranda, Carlos & Dries, Liesbeth, 2022. "Integrating coordination mechanisms in the sustainability assessment of agri-food chains: From a structured literature review to a comprehensive framework," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 192(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:8:p:3466-:d:349757. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.