Engineering

Pooling energy for a 100% sustainable future

We operate in the fields of waste treatment, water management, and energy. Our mission is to build custom-made, highly sustainable networks and systems, ensuring quality standards of excellence that are compliant with certifications.

 In the Engineering Department of Heratech, part of the Hera S.p.A. Group, we are responsible for designing works (connections, networks, plants) that are included in the investment plans and required by end customers of the distribution service, and for the construction and revamping of existing structures.

We operate in contexts that are characterized by a high degree of complexity and are of considerable technical-economic relevance. 

Thanks to our sustainable approach and the use of innovative technologies right from the design phase, we identify and implement solutions that enable us to respect the natural context of the area we serve.  In developing the network works and systems currently under construction and present in the 2019-2022 Business Plan, we estimate that almost 75% of the work will take place recovering areas that are already occupied by existing infrastructure. 

HERATech: our engineering soul

What we do

We work on about 400 project initiatives per year for a total lifetime value of over Euro 1 billion. 80% of the projects concern the water cycle, while the remaining 20% of the projects are for the Energy and Environment sectors. 

Our ongoing activities include analysis and feasibility studies, basic project development and environmental impact studies, front-end design, purchase of systems, components and materials for networks and plants, on-site installation, commissioning, testing, and final inspection.

For Heratech, design and construction are two sides of the same coin: we offer the experience we have gained over years of work not only in the design, but also in the construction and set up of construction sites of many different sizes and complexity. 

Our know-how? Our people

Our professionals are producers of ideas and solutions and represent an important intellectual and human capital. The high level of professionalism they have acquired over years of experience qualifies them to design and implement systems in different technological sectors inside and outside the Group. 

For this reason, the vast experience of our team is recognized at national and international level, and more and more projects have been requested by other companies in recent years.

Heratech employs over 200 technicians in its Design and Construction areas equipped with specific structures for the development of networks and systems in the water and energy production chains and environmental protection.

The Heratech Engineering Division employs civil, environmental, mechanical, hydraulic, energy, electrical and electronic engineers, architects and other specialized professionals.

Traditional areas of design are complemented by innovative fluid-dynamic/electric modelling and BIM (Building Information Modelling) development structures that analyse and model infrastructures by simulating their behaviour in both real-life and design conditions.

Specific instruments

System engineering is supported by various software adopted to each specific need. Modelling, sizing and calculation, planning, budgeting and accounting programs are adopted and interfaced with one another as required. Including:

• InfoWorks WS Pro: software for fluid dynamics modelling in the aqueduct sector
• InfoWorks WS Pro: software for fluid dynamics modelling in the sewerage sector
• ReteGas: gas network modelling software
• Teleris: district heating network modelling software
• Ampère Professional: software for the sizing of LV and MV electrical networks
• Digsilent Powerfactory: power grid modelling software
• DHI West: software for the biochemical modelling of purification plants
• ReCap Pro: software for surveying acquisitions and 3D scans
• Prosap: structural calculation software
• Paratie Plus: geotechnical modelling software (calculation of walls, bulkheads)
• Autocad (digital design),
• REVIT (BIM design),
• Navisworks (BIM project review) 
• Dynamo (graphical programming interface that permits the customization of the building information workflow)modelling program (calculation of walls, diaphragms)

New, sustainable energy thanks to the BIM model 

Building Information Modelling (BIM) is a methodology based on creating a single shared information platform, capable of supporting the entire life cycle of an infrastructure from its design to its upgrading, or demolition.

We were among the first to believe in this design method. Today it acts as a catalyst for renewal, thanks to an efficient combination of processes among the many actors involved (architects, engineers, construction professionals) and new technological systems (e.g., parametric objects, 3D visualization, simulations).

Turnkey projects

Heratech's Engineering Department operates as a turnkey project contractor. While always oriented towards process and energy optimization, we design, build, and restructure many types of plants: 

• transformation of waste into energy (WTE);
• distribution networks and electricity and thermal energy production plants;
• water treatment networks and plants;
• gas distribution networks and plants, for which we implement and manage thermodynamic, fluid dynamic, biochemical and electrodynamic simulation models.

Re-use of public land (I would move this paragraph under " A new sustainable energy thanks to the BIM model ") 

Right from the preliminary analyses, Heratech identifies technical solutions to re-use land in the design of the works. In 2018, the network and plant work we completed used almost 170,000 m² of land, 68% of which was already occupied by existing infrastructure. The results we achieved in the Integrated Water Service are even more significant as we recovered over 95,000 m² of land.
Looking to the future, the Heratech Group estimates that between 2019 and 2022, it will re-use almost 700,000 m² of land, i.e. 3/4 of the total land involved in new projects.

 Projects already completed

1. Territorial commitment for a clean sea
   Among the many activities implemented, the Hera commitment to the territory has taken form in several interventions (with an investment of over 154 million euros) in the Rimini Seawater Protection Plan for the purification of water in the Adriatic Sea. The doubling of the Santa Giustina wastewater treatment plant, the construction of the Bellaria-Santa Giustina pipeline, the conversion of the Rimini Marecchiese wastewater treatment plant into a storage tank, the construction of the first section of the South Dorsal, and the consequent separation of the sewer networks in the Rimini - North area led to an increase in purification efficiency and significant reductions in organic substances discharged into the sea. Another significant intervention for the protection of the Adriatic Sea has completed in Trieste with the new sewage treatment plant in Servola.
2. Hera and the virtuous waste circle
   Hera is also committed to the production of green energy to help improve air quality and the environment. The biomethane plant in Sant'Agata Bolognese feeds the biomethane produced by treating the landfill’s waste into the network. Thanks to revamping and modernization, the waste-to-energy plants in Ferrara, Forlì, Modena  and Rimini produce CO₂ emissions much lower than the limits specified by law.
3. Producing eco-sustainable power  
   Hera has developed and built cogeneration plants for more efficient and eco-sustainable energy production. The most significant examples have been made for the city of Imola and the west area of Bologna.

Heratech's expertise and skills are acclaimed so much throughout the world that the Chinese Wuijang Taihu Industrial Waste Treatment Company decided to entrust our Group with the engineering and construction of two plants: one for the waste-to-energy treatment of solid, liquid and combustible waste, the other for the treatment of liquid chemical-physical waste.