Integrating olive grove maintenance and energy biomass recovery with a single-pass pruning and harvesting machine

In Italy, olive tree groves may offer up to a million tonnes of dry biomass per year as pruning residue. Searching for a cost-effective way to tap this potential, the authors tested a new machine, capable of recovering pruning residue at the same time as pruning. The pre-commercial prototype was tested on four different plots and compared to a simpler tractor-base mechanical pruning unit. The authors conducted detailed time-studies in order to determine machine productivity and residue recovery cost. The integrated machine can treat between 0.2 and 0.6 ha h−1, producing between 0.33 and 1.03 tonnes of fresh residue hour−1. Its integrated residue recovery function does not slow the pruning, which actually proceeds faster than with the tractor-base unit, due to the more efficient multiple-disc cutting bar. The marginal cost of residue recovery hovers around 40–45 € fresh tonne−1. However, the new machine must not be considered just as a biomass harvester, but rather as a mechanical pruning unit with an integrated biomass recovery function. Its main benefit derives from the capacity of performing a very effective mechanical pruning, and the residue recovery function is a secondary benefit yet unavailable on standard pruning machines. Its deployment must be seen in the context of a general effort to modernize olive grove management and to develop an integrated biomass production system, rather than as a further attempt to build a specialised biomass supply chain.