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How it works
Leading-edge technology to produce electricity and heat from waste in complete safety
Waste is delivered to the plant and discharged into the collection and mixing tank, and then loaded for energy recovery into the boilers, the temperature of which is regulated at around 1,000 degrees. The heat produced from combustion generates high-pressure steam which is fed into a turbogenerator to produce electricity. The steam is also fed into the cogeneration plants to produce thermal energy which is used to heat the water for the district heating grid or to provide heat for other industrial activities instead of using fossil fuels.
All the plants are equipped with innovative emission treatment systems (i.e. the flue gas cleaning section) that lower the pollutant content by several orders of magnitude on the way from the combustion chamber to stack emission. The flue gases are purified using specific technologies depending on the substances to be treated:
- DeNOx systems that act on the concentration of nitrogen oxides, transforming them into natural air components such as nitrogen and water
- bag filter systems that retain dust and particulate;
- fume scrubber or dry reagent injection systems that convert and “capture” the other compounds chemically.
The purified fumes are subsequently conveyed as gaseous emissions to the stack. Here, strict emission control systems are activated, and enforced by the authorities, to constantly monitor gaseous flows and to guarantee compliance with the limits set by emissions standards.
Waste-to-energy plants also produce residues that mostly consist of a non-combustible fraction, as well as flue treatment residues. The first make up most of the residues produced, which are sent to be recovered, either as inert construction materials, or as metals (such as copper, aluminum, iron) instead of ending up in a landfill.
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Waste to energy plants
Waste-to-energy plants help us to close the integrated waste management cycle and to return new energy and heat to urban areas
Our commitment to the circular economy becomes real by exploiting any waste that cannot be recycled as a material and recovering it in waste-to-energy (WtE ) plants. We convert it into electricity using waste-to-energy facilities and, in the case of cogeneration facilities, into heat to be put into the district heating grid.
Waste to energy is the final virtuous phase of our integrated waste management cycle and offers significant advantages in terms of sustainability and safeguarding the environment, by saving energy resources, generating new value that is returned to the territory, and helping to achieve the European goal of reducing the amount of waste sent to landfills.
Treatment is totally safe and technologically innovative: the waste is carefully selected when it enters the facility and emission control is guaranteed by always monitoring emissions, which constantly remain well below the latest prescribed limits.
Total waste treated in plants in one year: 2,400,000 tonnes
Mostly unsorted and non-recyclable solid urban waste, biomass and other non-hazardous commercial and industrial waste enters the plant.
To give an idea, this amount:
- corresponds to slightly less than 1/4 of the unsorted urban waste produced throughout Italy;
- is equivalent to the waste in a medium-sized landfill site; waste-to-energy therefore reduces land consumption, one entire landfill site per year;
- is the total amount of waste produced by just under 5 million people (Italy produces an average of 500 kg of waste per year per capita).
CO2 emissions avoided: 1,800,000 tonnes
The production of electricity and heat from waste and the non-use of landfills for its disposal means that this annual amount of CO2 (carbon dioxide), which increases the intensity of the anthropogenic (i.e. resulting from human activity) greenhouse effect, is not produced and released into the atmosphere.
This quantity is roughly equal to the CO2 emitted annually by approx. 430,000 cars of medium horsepower running on petrol, with an average mileage of 25,000 km.
Fossil energy savings: 430,000 PET
The energy obtained from the combustion of waste saves the same amount of energy (and climate-changing emissions as a result) annually as the energy from the combustion of 430,000 petroleum equivalent tonnes (PET)
Electricity fed into the grid: 1.72 billion kWh
The plants, through their power generation systems (with a total capacity of approximately 350 megawatts), produce electricity that is fed into the national grid.
This figure equivalent to the average annual domestic consumption of approximately 640,000 households.
Thermal energy fed into the district heating grid: 1.5 billion kWh
Part of the pressurized steam used to power the electricity production turbines can be reused to produce hot water for the district heating grids.
The company's plants equipped with a thermal cycle to produce district heating, and with an installed thermal capacity of more than 700 megawatts, produce the thermal energy that is equivalent to the annual consumption of about 125,000 households.
Our waste-to-energy plants
We lead the way in Waste-to-Energy
We have 10 waste-to-energy plants, 5 of which include high-efficiency cogeneration plants serving the urban district heating grids of Bergamo, Brescia, and Milan.
Our investment plan involves increasing our waste treatment and recovery capacity by consolidating our leading position in the Waste-to-Energy sector.
Our plants
(only italian version)
By obtaining energy from waste and sewage sludge using waste-to-energy processes, Italian electricity production could increase by 55% over 2020
Renato Mazzoncini
CEO and Managing Director
CEO and Managing Director
An interesting read
400,000 bees make their home at the Brescia waste-to-energy plant
Did you know that bees, in their long daily flights (their range of action can be up to 2 km from the hive) 'capture' fine dust? This allows pollution levels in an area to be monitored effectively by carrying out specific tests. At the Brescia waste-to-energy plant, 400,000 bees have made their home in a completely natural way and we look after them.
