Focus - Hera Group

These numbers tell the success story of our state-of-the-art plant in Sant'Agata Bolognese, just outside Bologna: the latest great and ambitious project to add to our long list of waste treatment facilities (89 in total, including waste-to-energy plants, composters, and sorting plants). With one big goal: to relaunch the challenge of renewables on an industrial scale and make this plant a reference structure for green energy in Europe. 

BIOMETHANE: A CLEAN RESOURCE OF BIOLOGICAL ORIGIN

But what makes this natural gas source organic? Simply, the way to get it: not by drilling for hidden deposits in the deepest parts of the Earth but by fermenting organic waste in plants designed to do so. Biomethane can, therefore, be produced for as long as you want, it is endless, and production can be increased simply by building other plants. Making the process one of the purest examples of the circular economy. 

WHAT HAPPENS IN OUR SANT’AGATA FACILITY

Organic waste, obtained through separate waste collection, is processed by anaerobic digestion to produce biogas. How? The waste, shredded and screened, remains for about 21 days in 4 horizontal digesters, where suitable microorganisms carry out the digestion process to produce biogas (consisting of natural gas and carbon dioxide).

Then the biogas is upgraded using pressurized water to dissolve the carbon dioxide and separate the natural gas. The result is biomethane, a gas with a methane content of over 95% and a completely renewable energy source.

But that's not all. At the end of the digestion process, wood-cellulosic material is added to the resulting solid matter to obtain a compact mass that is sent to composting, to produce quality compost, which can be used as potting soil for vases or as a fertiliser in agriculture.

Come find out more about our Sant'Agata Bolognese plant.

Biomethane is, therefore, another revolution based on the circular economy, which all of us in the Hera Group want to pursue. Again, to create shared value, as Herambiente's CEO, Andrea Ramonda, is determined to emphasize:

“The direction we have taken addresses the industrial world as increasingly oriented towards creating shared value and partnerships.  We are aware that sustainable waste management, focused on the recovery of waste and compliant with the rules, is an essential factor in today's world, and one that delivers benefits to the entire community).

The idea of the exhibition came from the photographic project commissioned in 2018 to Silvia Camporesi on the occasion of the work being done on the Sant'Agata Bolognese site. The report has been enriched with other shots, thus becoming the complete story of the development of the plant.
The exhibition consists of 11 large-format photographic works which reveal where and how waste takes another form and becomes biofuel. Technology, innovation, industrial process, efficiency, circularity are the messages underlying each of the images captured by the artist.

Silvia Camporesi visited the plant every month for a whole year, documenting the evolution and changes to the facility. 

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