Results of the Tender
The journey began in May 2009 to identify a private minority/industrial partner for the establishment of a NewCo to which the design, construction and management of the Case Passerini waste-to-energy plant in the Municipality of Sesto Fiorentino could be assigned. It was concluded with the identification of the Hera Group, aided by a consortium of banks comprising Banca Infrastrutture Innovazione e Sviluppo S.p.A. (Intesa SanPaolo Group) and MPS Capital Services Banca per le Imprese Spa (Gruppo Montepaschi), as the best partner to meet all the requirements of the call for tender.
The choice of identifying the industrial partner able to guarantee the necessary expertise and reliability, through a call to tender, has today allowed for an engineering-design project and a management and organisational programme which guarantee the environmental, energy and economic efficiency objectives set out.
The Provincial Planning requirement to close the entire integrated waste management cycle can, through this first step, been ensured within the coming years.
Indeed, the Provincial Plan anticipates an integrated waste management system for the entire central Tuscany Region, where one of the fundamental components necessary for the area's autonomy, is precisely the Case Passerini waste-to-energy plant.

Establishment of the New Company
In the coming weeks, the NewCo Q.tHermo will be established with a 60% stake held by Quadrifoglio and 40% by the Hera Group, which will request legal authorisation to open the site. Q.tHermo will therefore submit the request for Environmental Integrated Impact Authorisation and the Environmental Impact Assessment, the first step required for completion of the plant. The same Q.tHermo will coordinate preliminary verification of the environmental matrices, basing on protocols defined by the Supervisory Bodies.

Operation costs
The overall amount of the tender award is Euro 134,480,250 plus VAT. Operations will be carried out under a dedicated financing scheme.

The project: a plant which will be completely integrated within the territory's urban and cultural context
The specifications for tender and the quality of the proposal submitted have already provided a complete final project, which can obtain the required authorisations and be put forward to citizens. Transparency and professionalism are the elements that distinguish the work completed up to now and which will be brought to completion in the coming months.
Already in 2009, thanks to work conducted by professors and students at the Industrial Design Department at the University of Florence School of Architecture, the territory's morphology was analysed and the possibilities for the environmental and architectural inclusion of the new plant into the area were investigated. The students' designs and calculations were among the basic materials submitted in the tender, precisely because the new waste-to-energy plant will represent a first "sign" of the modern urban landscape for the entire Florentine Plain. The objective is to build an industrial plant to serve the entire community, which is capable of being fully integrated within and, at the same time, representative of the complexity of the territory.
The Gae Aulenti project, one of the most prestigious names in international architecture, perfectly embodies this spirit, managing to encapsulate the past history of the area in the architecture of the plant, at the same time combining it with a vision of the future. This will be an impeccable synthesis of the elements which have distinguished the artistic and architectural history of the Florentine area, with an expression able to develop it into a modern architectural product.

The finest technology to optimise environmental performance and energy recovery
The plant will have 2 lines and, in compliance with planning regulations, a waste processing capacity of 136,760 tonnes per year (roughly 400 tonnes per day), equivalent to approximately 40% of the waste left over from sorted collection.
The construction of the plant, where approximately 50 workers will be employed either directly or indirectly, will make use of the best technology available (B.A.T. - Best Available Techniques), with the objective of achieving top performance both from an environmental standpoint, and regarding energy recovery. Special mention should be made of some of the most important technological features of the new plant: automatic control of grid movement, fine-tune adjustment of the combustion air mix and continuous analysis of all combustion flue gas intermediate pollutants for more effective regulation of reagents and greater air purification system efficiency.
Owing to the technological choices made, including the double flue gas treatment system, the new waste-to-energy plant will have atmospheric emissions well below the legal limits As regards energy recovery, the plant will be equipped with a 17.6 MWe generator (rated power) capable of generating 125 GWh of electricity annually. Approximately 106 GWh will be sold to the grid, equivalent to the annual electrical consumption of approximately 40,000 households.

The Hera Group centralised monitoring system: emissions data will be on the web
The Case Passerini waste-to-energy plant will make use of the Hera Group Centralised Monitoring System, an example of technological excellence within the European energy industry panorama. This is a system capable of guaranteeing continuous monitoring of main process and production parameters, making it currently one of the most important management and control instruments through which maximum production efficiency and minimum environmental impact can be ensured. In addition, the Q.tHermo technicians will participate in a highly specialised network capable of providing technical-organisational support throughout the different plant management stages.
The continuously monitored emissions figures from the new waste-to-energy plant will be made available online: each user will be able to check flue stack emissions in real time on the dedicated website. This element further enhances our desire to be the "glass house" on the Plain.

Schedule
In the coming weeks Q.tHermo will be formally established and will submit all the required applications for authorisation. The procedures for issuing them will be managed by the Province of Florence, which should issue all the authorisations necessary for the implementation and management of the works. Taking the schedules into account the waste-to-energy plant should be launched by the end of 2015 and run for its one-year monitored testing phase for a precise verification of the expected performance values.

Hera Group
The Hera Group, through its subsidiary Herambiente, is the number one Italian Company in the environmental industry, thanks to its overall base of 80 waste treatment and disposal plants (waste-to-energy plants, landfills, composting plants, selection plants, chemical-physical treatment, etc.). In 2011 Herambiente processed 5.7 million tonnes of waste and produced 680 GWh of electricity, of which 580 GWh was through waste-to-energy processing.
There are currently six waste-to-energy plants managed which process solid urban waste and special non-hazardous waste: Modena, Bologna, Ferrara, Ravenna, Forlì and Rimini.