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Web Content Article · written-by Palvi Andrea Tonziello on-date Jul 9, 2020 11:51 AM
SI Purchasing and Contracts Department (PCM) The Purchasing and Contracts Department is made up of purchasing line functions divided by business line, serving homogeneous groups of internal...
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Web Content Article · written-by LUCIA ALGISI on-date Jul 21, 2020 11:10 AM
SI Herambiente's commitments in 5 points Our plants, spread across Italy, recover paper/cardboard, plastic, wood, metals, glass, biodegradable waste, tyres, textiles, and inert materials. The scrap...
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Web Content Article · written-by Davide Donnarumma on-date Jul 9, 2020 11:54 AM
SI Reliability, innovation, state-of-the-art technology, and high performance in reducing environmental impacts. These are the qualities that characterise our responsible waste management...
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Web Content Article · written-by Palvi Andrea Tonziello on-date Jul 9, 2020 11:34 AM
SI The qualification and subsequent evaluation of suppliers at Group level is based on the verification of technical, economic and organisational quality requirements and compliance with...
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Web Content Article on-date Jul 9, 2020 11:25 AM
SI Hera’s quality controls on drinking water In managing the water system, Hera ensures that its customers receive tap water that is good to drink and complies with regulations. Monitoring is...
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Web Content Article on-date Jul 13, 2020 9:03 AM
398 2016-10-10 Team up. For the Hera Group this is a real philosophy, which every year leads to many concrete projects, through which our multiutility collaborates with citizens, institutions,...
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Web Content Article on-date Jul 8, 2020 9:49 PM
SI Romagna Acque-Società delle Fonti is a limited company that owns all drinking water sources for civil use in Romagna territory. The aqueduct system - made up of infrastructures and...
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Web Content Article on-date Jul 8, 2020 9:48 PM
Purified water is fed into the water mains and, via water balancing tanks and pumping stations, flows to the users' taps. Along the distribution network (which generally follows main roads) there...
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Web Content Article on-date Jul 9, 2020 11:15 AM
SI The identity card of Hera's water supply service The concept of 'water services' pertains to culture as it refers to the human activity aimed at satisfying water needs in social structures. The...
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Web Content Article on-date Jul 8, 2020 9:40 PM
SI The following table shows the main purification plants, which feed water into the civil water mains managed by Hera (over 904,000 cubic metres of water per day, 78% of all the water fed into the...
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Web Content Article on-date Jul 8, 2020 8:03 PM
SI Purification and potabilization processes are aimed at ensuring that water complies with the established requirements for drinking water by improving its organoleptic aspects (color, odor,...
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Web Content Article on-date Jul 8, 2020 7:57 PM
SI Hera draws water from various supply sources: surface water (streams, rivers, lakes), groundwater (mainly located in plains), and springs located in hills and mountains. The source mix depends...
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Web Content Article on-date Jul 8, 2020 7:56 PM
Management of all systems concerning water catchment, purification and distribution to the end customer (points 1, 2 and 3 in the diagram “Hera's integrated water service”) constitute the so-called...
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Web Content Article on-date Jul 8, 2020 6:49 PM
SI HERA IN 2 WORDS The Hera Group operates in 349 municipalities, providing energy and waste management services to 4.4 million people The Hera Group is a leading Italian multiutility company. It...
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Web Content Article on-date Jul 8, 2020 5:12 PM
SI Investments in the water sector Since its founding, the HERA Group has invested an average of 111 million euro per year in the water cycle (maintaining this commitment even at the peak of the...
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Web Content Article on-date Jul 9, 2020 12:40 PM
Si Analytical results of checks performed by local health authority Bianco Si ACQUA
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Web Content Article on-date Jul 8, 2020 7:40 PM
Si Catchment: where does the water we drink come from Bianco Si ACQUA
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Web Content Article on-date Jul 8, 2020 6:48 PM
Si Hera in 2 Words Bianco Si ACQUA
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Web Content Article on-date Jul 8, 2020 4:26 PM
Si Health-related aspects of water consumption Bianco Si ACQUA
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Web Content Article on-date Jul 8, 2020 4:26 PM
Si Hera's commitment to quality and beyond: improvement and research programmes Bianco Si ACQUA
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An investment of Euro 37 million. A plant that disposes of 100 thousand tonnes of organic waste produced by separate waste collection and another 35 thousand tonnes coming from green waste and pruning material.
An investment of Euro 37 million. A plant that disposes of 100 thousand tonnes of organic waste produced by separate waste collection and another 35 thousand tonnes coming from green waste and pruning material. And that, once "digested", produce 7.5 million cubic meters of biomethane fuel that is 100% renewable and 20 thousand tonnes of compost.
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.
In Spilamberto, a biodigester converted into a biomethane plant
An innovative plant for the production of biomethane came into operation in October 2023 in Spilamberto, in the Modena area. It was created by NewCo Biorg, the result of the partnership between the Hera Group and the Inalca company (Cremonini Group), thanks to a total investment of approximately 28 million euros and the use of the best available technologies.
Starting from the separate collection of organic waste and agri-food wastewater, the plant - created from the conversion of an old biodigester - produces 3.7 million cubic meters of biomethane every year when fully operational, a 100% renewable fuel intended for transport, and approximately 18 thousand tons of compost.
A cutting-edge plant for the energy transition and the circular economy
The 100% renewable natural gas is produced in the plant from the anaerobic digestion of organic waste coming from the separate collection carried out mainly in Modena and its district, from the waste resulting from the manufacturing process of the local agri-food industry and from the production process of Inalca's meat. Once refined, it becomes biomethane and can be introduced into the gas network.
The environmental benefits are important: around 7 thousand tonnes of CO₂ are avoided
Thanks to the introduction of biomethane into the network and its use in transport, significant environmental benefits are estimated: every year the use of approximately 3 thousand tonnes of fossil fuel oil equivalent (TOE) will be saved and CO₂ emissions will be avoided for approximately 7 thousand tons. To absorb such a quantity of CO₂, an average of 280 thousand trees would be needed.
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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