Over the last years, growing concerns about climate change and the need to guarantee secure energy supply have determined to take concrete actions aimed at the promotion and development of renewable energy sources, in particular biomass.
The objective of this Intensive Programme (IP), that will be held from 05 to 17 June 2011, is indeed to provide students with a global view of the state of the art of biomass use for energy, following the Directive concerning the promotion of renewable energy sources of 23 January 2008, included in the package proposal called “20-20-20”.
The course intends:

• to examine the production of principal bio-fuels, derived from different raw materials, through a technical, economic and environmental assessment;
• to analyse the most important innovative researches in this field.

 

The course will be divided into three principal sections:

1. Anaerobic digestion: biogas and bio-hydrogen production from different raw materials.
2. Biodiesel and bio-ethanol production from different raw materials.
3. Life Cycle Assessment methodology.

 

The learning activities will consist of lessons, working groups, data processing laboratory exercises, field works. At the course completion, each student will write a brief paper about his/her working group activity. The participation of several professors, coming from different European universities, and possessing a strong scientific background will allow students to: acquire a different, multidisciplinary and in depth knowledge of such topic; learn the main methodology to assess the environmental and energetic sustainability of the production process.
The participating students will receive the acknowledgment of 3 ECTS at the end of the course.