From composting to biomethane

Online presentation and visit to the Santhià plant,


Tuesday 19 October hours 15:00 (on line)
Wednesday 20 October hours 11.00 (plant)

Biomethane from waste is today an environmentally virtuous path , which allows you to transform a problem, that of the organic fraction of the waste, into a renewable fertilizer energy source. In the past years, composting has been identified as an optimal path for the stabilization of organic waste e, surely, it is still a valid method for this purpose. However, today, the possibility of obtaining biomethane, before compost production, although more expensive in terms of investment, it is more effective from the point of view of energy efficiency, as from the environmental one.

However, one of the obstacles to a greater diffusion of waste biomethane plants is that of the economically sustainable minimum size, which has so far been placed on a dimension of 40.000 tons of organic waste per year. The most recent plant developments make it possible to lower these thresholds, making smaller projects more feasible.

This could provide important advantages especially in central and southern Italy, where the lower population density and logistical problems make it more difficult and expensive to concentrate large quantities of OFMSW. Without forgetting the strong resistance of local communities to the impacts on the territory of the related logistics.

The meeting will take place at the Iren composting plant in Santhià (YOU), recently integrated with anaerobic digester and biomethane production, now fully operational, which will be possible to visit at the end of the presentations.

Program

9:45 Participant registration

10:00 Presentations:

  • Piero Mattirolo, Agroenergia The FORSU market situation and biomethane development in the waste sector
  • Gian Francesco Galanzino, EntsorgaComposting automation and the key factors for reducing the minimum plant size

11:00 Visit of the pre-treatment stations, anaerobic digestion, upgrading and composting