he aim of the present study was to assess a chain for the production and conversion of crude oil from high-oleic sunflower,
comprising field set-up management, seeds processing and coproducts exploitation. The possible exploitation of seed pressing
co-product (sunflower cake) as solid biofuel within a small sized
farm was assessed. Sunflower cake is a valuable by-product and its
final destination is fundamental in determining the environmental
and economic performance of the chain. It can be used as feedstock
for energy production both in thermochemical processes and
anaerobic digestion systems[20e22]. Many further applications
have been proposed for this by-product, from the use as animal
feed[23e27]to the utilization in biotechnological processes for the
production of enzymes, antibiotics, biopesticides, vitamins and
other biochemicals[28]. Due to its high nitrogen content, its use as
soil organic amendment has been also hypothesized, although few
scientific studies are available[29,30].
An experimental investigation was carried out in order to
evaluate thefield performance and the product properties and
yields of two high-oleic hybrids. Based on these data, different
scenarios of fuel and energy production in the rural context of
Tuscany were hypothesized