Giuliano A., Gioiella F., Sofia D., Lotrecchiano N., 2018, A Novel Methodology and Technology to Promote the Social Acceptance of Biomass Power Plants Avoiding Nimby Syndrome, Chemical Engineering Transactions, 67, 307-312.
Nowadays the greatest contribution to atmospheric pollution is due to carbonic dioxide (CO2) emissions resulting from industrial activities. Among the various technologies for the production of energies from renewable sources, the biomass combustion is the technology that better replaces the fossil fuels. Unfortunately, one of the limits to the spread of this technology in Europe and not only is the lack of social acceptability of the plants, in particular solid fuel biomass combustion. The “Nimby Syndrome” (Not In My Back Yard) is the strong opposition of the neighboring populations to their realization. The most significant reason of non-acceptance by populations consists in atmospheric pollution. People are worried about the effects on human health of possible atmospheric pollution caused by the gaseous emissions of combustion plants. Consequently, the formation of citizen committees against plant installation is promoted. The objective of this work is to identify a methodology able to contrast the “Nimby Syndrome” in the case of biomass power plants. The main actions to promote the social acceptance of biomass power plants are: Verify upstream of the realization (design phase) the effective use of BAT (Best Available Technologies); Involve the citizen at all stages of plant design; Install stationary cameras (internet connected) that make images of raw material in the plant available on-line 24 h/24. Realization of spatial and temporal high-resolution monitoring networks in order to verify the real impact of emissions on air quality in neighboring areas and to give the monitoring data available 24/24h to all citizens. About the last point, an innovative technology was used to carry out the air quality monitoring at high spatial and temporal resolution. These monitoring networks have to be installed before and after biomass plant realization. In this way, it is possible to have a comparison of atmospheric pollution before and after plant operation. The optimal arrangement of low cost monitoring station and data processing modes (also by using forecasting models) are described in this work. In this way, is possible to demonstrate the transparency about emission levels to citizens.
