ProCoGen final conference

Alasia Franco Vivai attended the final conference of the ProCoGen project (http://bfw.ac.at/rz/bfwcms2.web?dok=9677) presenting its internal experimentation activity and its active role in the European project WATBIO

Here is the abstract:

Improving biomass for bioenergy and bioproducts in Italy: the case of Alasia Franco Vivai

Francesco Fabbrini1*, Omar Alasia1, Maurizio Sabatti2, Alessandro Merlone1, Gail Taylor3, Antoine Harfouche2, Franco Alasia1

1Alasia Franco Vivai s.s., loc. Solerette 5/a, 12038 Savigliano (CN), Italy, 2Department for Innovation in Biological, Agro-food and Forest systems (DIBAF), University of Tuscia, via S. Camillo de Lellis snc, 01100 Viterbo, Italy, 3Centre for Biological Sciences, University of Southampton, UK

*Email: r.d@alasiafranco.com

Ensuring increased and sustainable biomass production is critical for European countries. Short-rotation coppice (SRC) culture have a great potential to increase biomass supply for bioenergy and bio-based products in Europe. Alasia Franco Vivai (AFV) is one of the biggest EU company in the production of plant material for energetic woody crops. To meet the market needs, AFV collect genotypes and develop new germplasm of four of the most used and promising tree species in Europe: Poplar, Willow, Arundo, and Miscanthus. The business development pipeline for the two strategic crops, Populus and Arundo, is very active with the company looking to expand to additional territories. Furthermore, to strengthen commercial and research activities, AFV has explored potential commercial opportunities (Greenwood resources, USA; International Paper, USA; ENCE, Spain), has established research collaboration with public entities (CNR, University of Tuscia, University of Pisa, University of Pavia), and has been involved in EU projects (POPYOMICS, BENWOOD, NOVELTREE and WATBIO). In order to make SRC system a sustainable opportunity, the selection of new high yielding and site-specific genotypes, along with the evaluation of phenotypic plasticity and genotype × site interaction, are of paramount importance. The overall purpose of WATBIO (developing drought-tolerant biomass crops for Europe – http://www.watbio.eu/) is to raise the economic and environmental performance of biomass crops grown on drought-stressed marginal lands by improving the efficiency of plant breeding. In the frame of this project, AFV plays a major role in shaping the project from a commercial exploitation perspective in Europe and plays a major role in the delivery of impact from relevant exploitable outputs. Furthermore, AFV has actively contributed by establishing and managing field trials activities on Populus nigra and Arundo donax in Italy, by supplying putative ecotypes of A. donax collected across Europe for studying genetic variability and by participating to the field data collection. Altogether, efforts of this research will focus on delivering new germplasm of non-food biomass for second-generation bioenergy, while protecting already stretched water resources.

 

Key words: Energy crops, breeding, biomass, bioenergy, bio-based products.