How should the incentives for the production of electrical energy by gasification plants alimented by

lignous biomass be applied?

Marino Berton

Branch association (300 companies) from the biomass production to the fume outlet

GASIFICATION AND INCENTIVE SYSTEM

INCENTIVE TARIFFS for electrical energy or

WHITE CERTIFICATIONS? The DM December 28th 2012 disciplining the White Certifications Excluded the cumulation!

SYNGAS AND INCENTIVE TARIFFS FOR THE PRODUCTION OF ELECTRICAL ENERGY The FAQ of the GSE are answering positively The plants for the production of electrical energy by the use of syngas, according to DM July 6th 2012, are classified as plants alimented by biomass or plants alimented by biogas? According to DM July 6th 2012, the plants of the production of electrical energy by the use of syngas produced from the gasification of the biomass, are classified as plants alimented by biomass according to the definition from par. 1.1 of the All. 1 of the same DM: “Biomass plant: is the together of stocking devices, the treatment and transformation of the fuel (between them are present the gasifiers), vapour generators, combustion ovens, grids and all groups of generation (engine-alternator group), condensators, from the fume treatment line, the pipe and, if demanded, works of taking and discharging of cooling water and of the cooling towers.”

THE MAIN CRITERIA FOR ACHIEVING INCENTIVE TARIFFS FOR THE PRODUCTION OF ELECTRICAL ENERGY Dm JULY 6TH 2012

• REGISTERS • CLASSIFICATION OF BIOMASS IN PRODUCTS AND BY-PRODUCTS • BASISI TARIFFS • POWERS • BONUS

REGISTERS For entering in the selection system and so achieving the contingent it is necessary that the interested subject is inscribed preventively in an apposite register attaching, inter alia, the authorizing acts of the plant, the approved project and the preventive of connection redacted from the grid manager and definitively accepted by the applicant. The GSE publishes periodically the bulletin for the procedure of the inscription to the register and forms the ranking according to six priority criteria to be applied hierarchically, until the demands corresponding to the first priority criterium don’t pass to the following one won’t be finished. The first selection criterium for achieving the contingent: “plants belonging to agricultural businesses, singles or associated, alimented by biomass and biogas using products and by-products, with a power not higher than 600 kW.” Excluded from the register sytems and so able to benefit directly from the incentive tariff without having to achieve the contingent are the biomass plants until 200 kW and the biogas plants alimented with a power until 100 kW. The plants provided in the reconversion projects of the bethicol-sacchariphere sector and the plants realized with a procedure of public evidence in the Public Administrations with a power of until the double of them indicated above, are not subjected to the register.

CONTINGENT The maximal limit of power expressed in MW for new plants which will be able to benefit from the incentive tariffs has been fixed in In the same contingent are included the plants alimented by: • biomass and biogas and syngas (from products and by-products) • gas from depuration and gas from discharging • sostainable bioliquids.

2013 2014 2015

170 160 160

CLASSIFICATION OF THE MATRIXES USED FOR ALIMENTING THE PLANT Products of biological origin: dedicated cultures as seed plot cultures to be destined to the anaerobic digestion, or the timber cultivations at short rotation for producing lignous biomass; By-products of biological origin. The decree has provided a long list of by-products useable in biogas and biomass plants, divided in four categories: 1 by-products of animal origin not destined for the human consumation; 2 by-products coming from agricultural activities, from breeding, green management and forest activities; 3 by-products coming from alimentar activities and agroindustry; 4 by-products coming from industrial activities. For all of them is provided a specific list of admittet by-products. For the referring tariff, also the plants non bigger than 1 MW, alimented for 70% with by-products and for 30% with products, can be recognized as alimented with by-products. Waste for which the biodegradable fraction is standardizedly determined; Waste not coming from the waste separation.

TARIFFS To the electric energies produced by plants alimented with biomass and biogas is recognized an incentive tariff, fix and constant for twenty years, representing the amount between the value of the energy and the incentive. This modality is attributed to the plants with a power until 5 MW, above this limit begins the mechanism of the “dutch auction”. The value of the tariff is taking into account a serie of variables: tipology of the used matrixes power classes bonus recognized at specific aspects bound with the efficiency and used technology.

Basis TARIFF –POWER - BONUS The decree attributes a basis tariff richer in by-products and wastes coming not from the waste separation and inferior to the plants alimented by products. To the inferior power classes are recognized the highest basis tariffs. In particular the plants until 300 kW are advantaged.

The bonus constitute an add to the basis tariff, with a variable value according the specific characteristics and can be accumulated. They concern the reduction of the greenhouse gas emissions, the valorization of the produced electrical and thermal energy, the reduction of the emissions in the atmosphere (only for biomass), the remotion and nitrogen recovery (only for biogas).

TARIFFS Attention The basis tariff is reduced of 2% per year and starts in 2014.

Notes 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

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BIOMASS a)Products of biological origin

1<P<300 229 40 30 300<P<1000 180 40 30

1000<P<5000 133 40 20 10 30

P<5000 122 40 20 10 30 b) By-products of biological origin (Tab. 1 A) d) Waste coming not from the waste separation (different than in the point c.)

1<P<300 257 10 40 30 300<P<1000 209 10 40 30

1000<P<5000 161 10 40 10 30

P<5000 145 10 40 10 30 c) Waste for which the biodegradable fraction is standardizedly determined

1<P<5000 174 10 P<5000 125 10

TARIFFS-POWERS-BONUS

Notes 1 CAR Award provided for plants with biomass, biogas and sostainable bioliquids, operating in cogeneration at a high crop. 40 €/MWh if alimented with products of biological origin and 10 € MWh for other plants. 2 CAR DISTRICT HEATING Award as an alternative to the other one, for plants with biomass (not biogas), only with by-products of biological origin and exclusively if the cogenerated heat is used for district heating. 3 BRANCH BIOMASS The branch biomass is included in the biomass indicated in the Tab 1-B of the decree. The bonus is provided only for plants with a power between 1 and 5 MW. Plants with a power under 1 MW and biogas power plants are excluded. 4 GREENHOUSE GAS REDUCTION the bonus is valid only for plants with a power between 1 and 5 MW, plants with a power under 1 MW and biogas power plants are excluded. Enea in collaboration with CTI will arrange within 90 days to prepare the procedure for the calcolation of the greenhouse gas to determine the right to the bonus. 5 EMISSIONS Plants with biomass by dedicated cultures or by by-products can benefit of the bonus, plants of any power, also modernized plants in order that they satisfy the requirements of emissions in the atmosphere as in the attached 5 of the decree. The emissions limits refer to NOx, NH3, CO, SO2, COT, powders. The limit for powders is 10 mg/Nm3 for plants of a thermal nominal power until 6 MWt . Biogas power plants are excluded of the bonus.

BONUS EMISSIONS (FAQ GSE) Is the award of 30€/MWh (art. 8, comma 7) to be applied to gasification plants with internal combustion engines with emissions referring to a oxygen content of 5% in the gasuous effluent? To the award of art. 8, comma 7 of the DM can have access also gasification plants with internal combustion engines in order to be authorized to the exclusive alimentation with biomass of the type a) and/or type b) (as defined in the paragraph 1.3.5 of the Applicative Procedures). The emission values of the attached 5 in this case have to be normalized to the oxygen content of 11%. The verification modalities in respect of the requirements of the art. 8, comma 7 of the DM by ARPA and the APPA will be defined with one of the provided decrees by art. 281, comma 5 of the D.Lgs. 152/06.

AUTHORIZATIVE TITELS AND USED BIOMASS (FAQ GSE) Authorizations and administrative aspects What are the modalities by which the authorizative/habilitative titels have to report indications on the biomass used by the plant (art 8, comma 4 of the DM)? Do exactly all the by-products of biological origin in the letter b) have to be reported and products of biological origin in the letter a), with an explicit declaration, for example that the ones of the category a) don’t exceed the 30% of the total in the weight? The title authorizative of the construction and the plant management has to report punctually the products, by-products and wastes which use and relative maximal quantities (in weight) are provided entering in the plant. In case of a unique authorization the information above have to be reported in the authorization text or in the relative attached. In the other cases, the information above have to be reported in the declared Technical Relation attached at the titles and have to be authenticated by the Community.

Final considerations After other 18 month of the coming into effect of the DM July 6th 2012 • The bonus cannot be simply consecuted • An absence of normative uniformity TUA D.lgs 152/ 2006 – DM July 6th 2012

exists • We’re waiting for a «by-products» decree which would have to clarify and

resolve, but the wait is retarding of more than a year

Extract of DM July 6th 2012 , attached tab 1 a

THE UNIQUE ENVIRONMENTAL TEXT The attached X of the part V of the D. Lgs n. 152/2006 “Discipline of the combustibles” individuates in the parte I sect.1 the combustibles which can be used in the plants as in the title I. Between them, in the letter n) we find combustible biomass individuated in the part II sect. 4. In the section relative, it is referred to the characteristics of combustible biomass, as: 1. “vegetal material produced by exclusively mechanical treatment, purification by water and drying of agricultural non dedicated cultivations”; “vegetal material produced by an exlusively mechanical treatment, purification by water and drying of agricultural products”; 2. “vegetal material produced by an exclusively mechanical operation and by the treatment with air, vapour or heaten water by vergin wood and wood constituted by barks, cutten wood, shavings, chips, granulates, etc”.

the possibility of using this biomass according to the dispositions of the part V is subordered to the subsistence of the provided requirements for by-products One note of the Environmental Ministry, prot. 11338 of March 1st 2011, clarifies that the vegetal waste coming from green areas, gardens, parcs and cimiterial areas, are not excluded from the waste’s normative, are consequently wastes, and that the article 185 is referring to materials coming from agricultural and forestal activities and only for the described uses.

And finally are the wood chips coming from the forestal management products

or by-products?

This answer should arrive from the «imminent by-products» decree? And meanwhile what tariff do we apply?