Sustainability of Syngas production within circular economy

The energy production from waste or biomass is a topic that, especially in Italy, produces mixеd reactions, as outlined by the controversies that promptly accompany the building up waste-to-energy plants. The development of agro-industrial systems that process biomass or reuse waste to obtain bioenergy can play an important economic role only if the environmental problems linked to the territory are analysed and studied in detailsThe energy recovery model should represent the last opportunity to adopt behaviour according to the circular economy paradigm. In any case in Europe and in Italy, the recycling system of the waste collection practice is not an efficient process and all member states have to set common rules guaranteeing a high level of environmental protection in the European waste recovery market. Before the circular economy package becomes effective, a transitional period should be considered, taking into consideration the environmental problems linked with energy production emissions. What can research do in this sense? Are there any technologies available to make energy production from waste or biomass fully sustainable according to the development of models related to the territory and its specificities? It is not an easy question to answer but there are recent initiatives which have promoted the study and analysis of gasification to produce a synthetic gas (syngas) avoiding fossil fuel use. From a circular economy perspective, a possible option to make effective waste to energy initiative should be based on the value supply chain using Refused Derived Fuels (RDF) obtained from urban waste for the production (syngas). The aim of this study, based on the European Union strategies on circular economy and bioeconomy, through the well-established methodology of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), has been to analyse and evaluate the environmental impacts of syngas production techniques both from residual biomass (this being called bio-syngas), from waste, and from hydrogen generation produced by a pilot plant in Apulia region, in order to make a comparison and identify the critical issues and opportunities for the production of bioenergy in a circular economic perspective