De-oiled grape seed meal used as biomass fuel

Draft Decree of the Minister for the Environment and Land and Sea Protection, in agreement with the Minister for Economic Development and the Minister for Health pursuant to Article 281(5) of Legislative Decree No 152 of 3 April 2006, adding de-oiled grape seed meal to the list of biomass fuels

The notified draft decree consists of a single article that adds, subject to certain limits and conditions, de-oiled grape seed meal to the list of biomass fuels under Part II, Section 4 of Annex X to Part Five of Legislative Decree No 152 of 3 April 2006.

In particular, a new subparagraph (i) is added to the list.

The article contains three conditions:

- de-oiled grape seed meal must be obtained by removing the oil from grape seeds with n-hexane in order to extract grape seed oil, and through subsequent heat treatment and any mechanical treatments and washing, provided that the treatments are carried out within the same facility;

- the values for humidity, n-hexane, ash, the low calorific value and organic chlorinated solvents in de-oiled grape seed meal must comply with the limits stated in a specific table as well as the test method benchmarks;

- if used outside the production facility, the characteristics of grape seed meal must be derived from an identification system based on a series of requirements vis-à-vis labelling and the drafting of accompanying documents, which are similar to those already laid down in Annex X to Legislative Decree No 152 of 2006, for the use of de-oiled olive pomace as a fuel outside the production facility.

The use of de-oiled grape seed meal as a fuel for energy purposes must, as mentioned, always be in line with the general requirements for by-products (Part Four of Legislative Decree No 152 of 2006) as well as the general rules for fuels (Title III, Part Four of Legislative Decree No 152 of 2006).