Profilo aziendale
CA.RE. FOR. Engineering (acronym for CArbon REduction and FORestry Engineering, CFE from now ahead) is a professionals association started in 2010, by Marco Ugolini (Forest Engineer and Ecologist) and Luca Pedocchi (PhD Chemistry). Both of them have more than 25 years experience in their own operational fields.
The association involves highly qualified professionals (environmental engineers, agronomists, chemists) specialized on multicriteria analysis (MCA), LCA techniques (E-LCA, S-LCA, LCCA), sustainability certification, biomass supply chain assessment as well as understanding of their value chain creation.
CFE\'s core competencies are in supply chain sustainability assessment and certification and life cycle assessment with elective application to agri-energy, agri-food and forestry systems.
CFE is one of the major specialized national players in consultancy on environmental sustainability certifications, and life cycle assessment of the biomass and intermediate products in the production chain of biofuels, with particular reference to biodiesel supply chain both for the 1G process production and advanced biofuels.
Indeed, CFE has been at the forefront of biodiesel production chain sustainability in Italy, accompanying in 2012 the first Italian Company to obtain the certification for the environmental sustainability of the whole supply chain from the agricultural stages of the biomass cultivation to the biodiesel production, within the 2BSvs Standard (Directive 2009/28/CE).
CFE has also proved abilities to design and introduce sustainability-oriented guidelines for innovations in the industrial process related to agri-food systems (e.g. Cereal Docks S.p.A., 2013; Fiorentini Firenze S.p.A., 2018).
Since 2018 CFE has started its activity in European Projects under the H2020 and Horizon-EU Work Programs, working alongside authoritative European partners such as POLIMI (IT), TNO (NL), NUIG (IR), UBB (RO), UHOH (D), SWERIM (SE), HyET (NL).
CFE’s Team is nowadays involved in two very interesting and important Research and Innovation Actions (RIA) which consist of activities aiming to establish new knowledge and/or to explore the feasibility of a new or improved technology, product and processes.
The first project is named CONVERGE (CarbON Valorisation in Energy-efficient Green fuels). It aims to reduce the cost of biodiesel and make its production more sustainable. The project is funded with €5,087,031.25 within the European Union\'s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program.
The goal is to ensure that biodiesel production becomes competitive with that of fossil fuels , optimizing the use of residual biomass and the integration of innovative technologies by which biomass conversion efficiency can be increased by 12 percent and costs reduced by more than 10 percent.
In fact, CONVERGE through the gasification process enables energy conversion of residual biomass and separation of hydrogen and carbon dioxide, purification and compression of hydrogen ensuring more efficient production of biodiesel precursor biomethanol. Simultaneously with biodiesel production, the CONVERGE process involves the capture of carbon dioxide in excess of the available carbon content in biomass through the Bio Energy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) process. BECCS is recognized by the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change of the United Nations) as a key technology for containing the increase in the planet\'s average temperature resulting from increased carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere below 1.5°C.
The second project is named F-CUBED (Future Feedstock Flexible Carbon Upgrading to Bio Energy Dispatchable Carriers). It aims to the production of energy carriers for increasing the flexibility of the electricity network throughout the conversion of biogenic residues for the bioenergy sector. The project is funded with € 4,059,128.75 within the European Union\'s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program.
The F-CUBED project aims to develop an innovative concept of the advanced hydrothermal conversion process called TORWASH®, applied to different types of biogenic residues into intermediate bioenergy carriers (IECs) with solid fuel characteristics suitable for balancing the power grid in accordance with the international specifications on solid pellet fuels produced by thermal processing of non-woody biomass for industrial use (ISO/TS 17225-8:2016-TA3).
In this way, biogenic residues and wastes have their energy density and combustible characteristics increased while reducing process costs and GHG emissions to generate heat and power. Three long-term pilot plant tests are conducted in the project with residue streams at three industrial sites: paper sludge from water treatment plants in the pulp & paper industry (SWEDEN), fruit and vegetable waste from an agri-food industry (SPAIN), and pomace from the extra virgin olive oil production process (ITALY).
