Waste, the european project “Decisive” approved

“DECISIVE is a breakthrough in the concept of utilization of the organic waste fraction.” This is how Claudio Fontana of Innovative Technological Systems S.r.l. (ITS), the company of AREA Science Park at the campus of Gorizia, comments the initiative partnered by the enterprise. 

“The European project DECISIVE – approved by the European Commission in the beginning of December –  provides for utilization of solid municipal waste collected in the quarter’s residential area by means of installing micro biogas plants – continues Fontana. The idea and the aim of the project is to modify the system of organic waste recycling in all the member states.”

At present, this type of waste is delivered to large-sized waste collection centers, “but they are marked by high costs of creation and considerable heat dispersion.” The initiative consists in creating of a decentralized collection and management system that includes building of micro plants within the cities “to utilize waste, reduce delivery and transportation costs as well as diminish the levels of harmful substances in the air.”

In particular, Italian ITS will be in charge of implementation of the biogas utilization process for simultaneous production of electric and thermal power by means of stirling technology. It has numerous advantages, among others, flexibility of operation as regards the features of the produced biogas: “the combustion takes place outside the engine and it allows optimizing the biogas combustion process not so much due to the engine’s needs (which simply operates through the difference in temperature between its hot and cold parts), but due to a reduction in the harmful emissions to the environment.” Moreover, it allows for “optimization of the boiler flame to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions.”

Thus in the course of four years of project duration, these pilot plants will be built and their reliability will be checked in time. Both non-profit companies are available to follow the works: “The first prototype will be installed in France where there are already urban farmers, experimental factories within the cities that make use of head and electric power at the same time and that are perfect locations for installing these pilot plants  – explains Fontana. We are considering installing other plants in France and Spain.” The project partner countries range from Denmark with the AarhusUniversity to Germany with the Hamburg University of Technology; from Spain with the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) the French leader IRSTEA – Research Unit GERE France Research Institute.

To keep the structures alive, also a remote control of the prototypes is planned “both to monitor their performance and reliability and for demonstration purposes to describe the results of the work of the entities involved.” The information gathered will make it possible to determine the utilization parameters to figure out “what is the cost/benefit relationship of the plant and the reduction of harmful emissions with respect to the traditional solutions.”

DECISIVE will start in May 2016 (complying with all the necessary time-frames and contractual procedures) with a budget of 8 million euros and it will be coupled with a training and information activity both for the entities in charge of the organic cycle management and for the citizens.