Environmental sustainability and alternative energy: biofuels and public transport

The energy saving and the use of renewable sources want to give a response to the increasing of energy demand and the rising of prices of traditional fuels. The use of renewable sources and efficient use of energy impose a strategic and irreversible choice. The possibility of replacing traditional fossil fuels with those of biological origin has been strongly emphasized. The European Union aim is that by 2010 the biofuels must account 5.75% of total fuel used (the Italian government has recently approved the Directive). In 2020 this rate will climb to 18%. The policies have played a key role in the development of the biofuel industry, and particularly in the energy, environmental, fiscal,trade and agricultural policy. The Region of Sicily has favorable conditions to start up initiatives that develope a policy of environmental improvement, of employment and of entrepreneurship, with the ability to enable further opportunities in agriculture, among these facilitating the smooth introduction of several crops repriced abandoned land and no longer properly used. The aim is to achieve an integrated program of intervention for the birth in Sicily of a chain of bioethanol. Moreover, considering the peculiar climatic characteristics of Sicily (arid and semi arid environments typical of the region), as in much of the Mediterranean countries, with the supply of water limited and unevenly distributed throughout the year, has led research institutions to evaluate new materials, as an alternative to traditional crops, suitable for oil production to be devoted to the synthesis of biodiesel. In this view the ISAFOM (Operating Unit of Catania Institute for farming systems and Mediterranean forest) of CNR, has focused attention on oil alternatives to be used for the production of oil to be allocated to the synthesis of biodiesel in Mediterranean enviromental. This work shows the preliminary results of research conducted on three species: the thistle, the camelina sativa and the brassica carinata with biological cycle between autumn and spring, and thus able to intercept all natural water available, in order to assess the potential of this three species for oil production in Mediterranean environment.