Biomass district heating system in Italy: A comprehensive model-based method for the assessment of energy, economic and environmental performance

In the framework of the energy strategy toward 2050, district heating systems (DHS) offers a great flexibility in terms of heat generation technologies and renewable resources integration, resulting, in case of proper management and supply conditions, in fossil primary energy and greenhouse gases savings compared to conventional technologies. In Italy, only the 2.5% of the thermal final uses are satisfied by DHS and, although widely available over the territory, those fuelled by wooden biomass represent less than the half of the total. Many studies in this framework have highlighted the need of methods and tools for a better understanding of the operative conditions, of the potentialities and of the optimal evolution of biomass DHS. To that end, a proper simulation model has been developed and calibrated on a real case study operating in cogeneration, in an urban area of Northern Italy. After investigating the current performance of the real case, some criticalities have been described and new operating scenarios have been defined and simulated. The achieved results represent a support for the stakeholders involved in BDHS and for future energy policies, providing hints on possible challenging evolutive scenarios and on measures to enhance the energy performance and the economic appeal.