(Finance) – The operational guide made by AENEAS And Utilitalia for the energy diagnosis in the waste incineration sector. Available and downloadable online, the publication is the fifth product of the series’Energy efficiency notebooks‘, carried out under the Program Agreement for Research of the Electricity System 2019-2021, initially funded by the Ministry of Economic Development and now headed by the Ministry of Ecological Transition.
In addition to carrying out the task of incineration, the installations belonging to the sector use the energy generated by the combustion of waste to produce both electricity to be fed into the network and thermal energy for district heating. The analysis of the energy audits received so far – belonging to 26 out of 37 plants present at national level – has shown a potential of efficiency of the consumption energy, for these sites, of almost 4,000 toe / year (with a variable incidence between 20 and 40% on the production of electricity). Given the peculiarity of the sector, the savings energetic achieved, it automatically transforms into an improvement of the capacity in the production of electrical and thermal energy with an immediate benefit in terms of energy self-production of the country. If all the interventions were carried out, an additional energy demand could be met equal to that of the annual energy consumption of about 20 thousand people.
Within the guideline, the process is divided into its own main stages (waste supply, steam generator, thermal cycle and fume purification). The analysis of the diagnoses shows how the entire incineration cycle absorbs about 11% of the electricity produced by the plant itself for its operation. In particular, the consumption electric linked to the purification of fumes, it covers about one third of the plant’s total consumption, the remaining two thirds are mainly attributable to the steam generator and the thermal cycle and, only minimally, to the handling of waste.
In addition to providing companies and professionals the information necessary to carry out a quality energy diagnosis, the guide offers a broad and detailed analysis of the energy performance indices specific to the sector, a database of possible interventions efficiency energetic accompanied by a cost / effectiveness analysis of the energy interventions carried out and proposed by the companies in the previous diagnosis cycles.
“The series of Quaderni dell’Efficienza, created with the collaboration of the most important trade associations, such as Utilitalia, represents one of the most important tools that ENEA makes available to the business world and to all stakeholders involved”, he says Ilaria Bertini, Director of the Energy Efficiency Department of ENEA. “A correct operational guideline, in fact, guarantees a quality energy diagnosis, also compliant with Legislative Decree 102/2014; this helps companies, especially in a historical moment such as the current one characterized by high costs of energy supplies, to more easily identify the energy efficiency measures to be implemented in order to become more efficient ”, underlines Bertini.
“The waste incineration sector with energy recovery – comments the vice president of Utilitalia, Philip Brandolini – plays a fundamental role in respecting the waste management hierarchy in the path towards achieving the objectives of the European Green Deal. We believe that this document, to which we have actively collaborated, will be a useful tool for the correct analysis and monitoring of the energy consumption of a site waste-to-energy and quantifying the achievable savings for these plants which are net energy producers. By providing an overview of the main technological solutions for increasing energy efficiency in the various process phases, it will also be able to guide the choices of companies in the adoption of a wide range of technologies. For Utilitalia it is also a source of satisfaction to be able to collaborate with a body of proven technical and scientific competence such as AENEAS and finally the contribution basic supplied by associated companies that manage waste-to-energy plants “.
“We have welcomed the proposal of ENEA and Utilitalia to present the operational guide for energy audits in the waste incineration sector at the Turin waste-to-energy plant”, declared Alexander Battaglino, president of TRM, the Iren Group company that manages the Turin plant. “Not only because our waste-to-energy plant is a best practice in the sector at a national and international level, but because in this era punctuated by multiple crises, managing waste and producing from that fraction that cannot be used in any other way can contribute to gas and energy. to solve some of the emergencies we are experiencing. Being able to share the distinctive elements of our industrial experience with such a qualified audience and pooling strategies for an increasingly sustainable future is a source of satisfaction and pride “.