Introduction By looking for a transition of our world toward a less intensive carbon footprint, renewable energy sources must play a central role in the energy production. It is nowadays commonly recognized the fact that a gradual reduction in the use of fossil fuels for energy production will give the chance of the creation of a more sustainable energy system. Renewable energy, as we all know, is often characterized by unpredictability fluctuations which causes problems not only to the final users, but also to the management of the energy distribution. For this reason, between all the possible environmental resources exploitable by the man, biomass and bioenergy in general could play a fundamental role in a stable and more predictable transition of our energy production. As a matter of fact, the above mentioned concept of sustainability could not be pursued without keeping the focus on environmental footprint, but also basing all the analysis on the economic and social spheres. Biomass utilization technologies also gives the opportunity of a perfect application of the modern concept of “circular economy”, as a matter of fact, before looking at new exploitable resources we have to find the best treatment and useful solution for all those materials coming from our processes. Human integration with the environment is facing harder challenges every day, thus a mechanism based on the connection between our needs (materials and energy) and our waste products could give a huge chance. According to Ellen Macartur Foundation, “Looking beyond the current take-make-
waste extractive industrial model, a circular economy aims to redefine growth, focusing on positive society-wide benefits.” [1] In Europe this concept have been pursued by means of the directive 2008/98/CE in the field of waste management, sub-products and secondary raw material saying that “ The present directive should help Europe to get closer to a “society
of recycling” trying to avoid the production of garbage and use them as resources”. [2] It has been thus defined the concept of “End of Waste”, whose starting point is to set the parameters to classify what is a waste and what is a product. In particular, the European legislation, set the following general criteria to fulfill the “End of Waste” concept: The substance/material must be used for common purposes; A market/demand regarding the material under analysis already exists; The employment of the material do not cause an overall impact on the environment and people.
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