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Agricultural biomass as an opportunity for circular economy in Croatia

Purpose of the work ; Approach ; The problems facing Croatia are low competitiveness, poor connections between companies and inadequate disposal of the remains of agricultural crops - biomass. The presentation would present Eco build project whose task was networking scientific organizations with the industry by creating a network of owners and potential users of agricultural biomass/ash. Agricultural biomass is here considered to be residual in the fields after harvesting crops. The task here was to establish co-operation between agriculturists who own agricultural biomass and the local industry that would use this biomass as a substitute for commonly used energy sources and establish cooperation between the local companies, where burning of agricultural mass would produce ashes which could be used by the construction industry in building products. Scientific innovation and relevance ; Result ; Available quantities of agricultural biomass in Croatia for a five-year period range from 2 901 197 to 4 025 889 tonnes per year, up to 10 times the amount compared to the amount of available forest waste that the current biomass power plants use as an energy source. Taking into account that a part of the agricultural biomass should be left on the fields in order to preserve the quality of agricultural soils, there are still large quantities of unused biomass. Redirecting surplus agricultural biomass to the local industry would also benefit the agriculturists who own it and the industry that uses it. Namely, redundant biomass is currently trapped in fields or being burned by agriculturists, which pollutes the environment. By selling their biomass to the industry sector, agriculturists would gain financial benefits. On the other hand, agricultural biomass is a waste product and is expected to be sold at a lower cost than conventional energy sources, which would bring savings to the energy industry. By burning agricultural biomass for energy large amounts of ash are generated, that needs to be taken care of. In order to promote agricultural biomass as an energy source, its heating power is determined and compared to the heating power of standard energy sources. The use of biomass ashes has been explored in concrete, mortar, stabilized soil and reinforced concrete beam and research results were promising. Conclusions. According to the research results, agricultural biomass as energy source is similar to wood chips and the ash of agricultural biomass has potential to be used in civil engineering products.

biomass, energy, biomass ash, civil engineering products, Eco build

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