Currently, the adoption of advanced forest machines such as specialized headers, forwarders and advanced chipping systems have become widespread in countries where the forest economy represents an asset, mainly in Northern Europe, while only in the last years has an increase in the use of these technologies been observed in central and eastern Europe. Therefore, producing energy biomass at low costs must necessarily be inspired by an industrial logic, which should rely on highly productive technologies that process large quantities of product in a short time to minimize the production costs. However, residues are low-value material requiring low harvest costs to become sustainable. From a strategic point of view, the sustainable management of wood residues coming from these stands may represent a resource to be exploited for the development of the bioenergy sector. To provide an estimation, about 3.7 million hectares of coppice are present in the Italian peninsula, representing 42% of the total national forest surface and 20% of the total coppice stands present in the European Union. In Italy, among the sources of forest residues, the biomass derived from coppice woods could be remarkable, as coppice represents almost half of the total Italian forest area. Despite challenging procurement logistics, agro-forest residues may represent a valid resource for generating thermal and/or electrical energy. The current EU energy policies support the recovery and utilization of agricultural and forest residues to increase the production of renewable energies. Summarizing, the results obtained in this work indicated that opportune forest operations can provide a significant amount of wood residues (mainly branches and tops) from oak coppices in central Italy and that the derived material can reach medium commercial features, being exploitable in different bioenergy production scenarios. Taking into account the standards of wood chips for energy use, the material produced was included in the quality class B. The wood residues obtained were mainly tree branches and tops and accounted for 19.8% of the total biomass extracted from the forest. The study also evaluated the performance of the technologies used for the harvest and chipping operation. The present study focused on the quantification and the physical/energetic characterization of oak residues (branches and tops) obtained from a coppice stand in central Italy. The sustainable management of coppice forests and the valorization of forest residues represent key activities for the development of wood for the energy supply chain.
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