In a future, low carbon economy and bioenergy can play a significant role and contribute substantially to the global energy supply and to a Society entirely independent of fossil fuels as programmed by 2050.
Within this scope many Countries invest resources and set up ambitious strategies towards the achivement of the large share of the 20% renewable energy target by 2020.
However a long list of utmost important and pending challenges is still evident and facing the Research Activity:
•How processes are effectively designed, how they properly fit into a grid of sustainable power supply that includes wind, geo, hydro and solar.
•How we should use our agricultural resources in a sustainable and ethical way avoiding a negative impact on another global challenge such as scarcity of food.
• Can we demonstrate that biomass is a secure an sufficient supply of energy for the future?
•Are we able to treat urban biowaste so that we may convince the community to a more effcient recycling? Is Biowaste bound to become more important than Biomass in a continuosly increasing developed society ?
•Is the conversion from biomass to bioenergy, biofuel or bio-product achieving a real reduction of greenhouse gas emissions ?
Eliseo Ranzi, Mario Costa (Guest Editors)
