The entire Italian territory hosts hundreds of purification plants in which civic sewage water converges to be purified and introduced into the water cycle itself. During the several steps of the purification process, waste is accumulated. Made of organic matter and known as purification sludge, the waste undergoes a natural process of anaerobic fermentation by which biogas is created. Biogas cannot be released into the atmosphere exactly as it is, making it mandatory for the purification plants to burn it by means of a torch.  All the energy contained in the methane that is in the biogas is wasted and “thrown out of the window.”

ENplus designs and produces electrical and thermal production systems, therefore making the most out of biogas from civic purification plants by means of appropriately dedicated  BIO+ systems.

The management of biogas, that compulsorily stands for “waste”, now enters a management cycle that turns waste into a resource and an asset, and that should not be overlooked but exploited by producing clean and renewable energy.

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ELETRICAL AND THERMAL ENERGY GENERATION

BIO+ solutions for purification sludge are based on two ways to generate electrical and thermal energy:

• Regenerative cycle turbine
• Internal combustion engine

The regenerative cycle turbine is suitable for sizes from 100 kWe up to 200 kWe. Simple to produce, small in size and perfect for indoor installation, very few stops for maintenence, and 8700 hours of guaranteed functioning per year are some features that undoubtedly prove BIO+ microturbine solutions to be technically and economically winning.

The internal combustion engine is suitable for sizes from 192 kWe up to 1200 kWe. It is the right solution in order to favour the system’s electrical efficiency and when biogas availability is very high. It is the typical application for large purification plants (more than 250,000 residents).

GREEN CERTIFICATE AND BENEFITS

By means of a BIO+ solution, companies that run purification plants can use biogas to produce electricity for self consumption and to produce heat to warm up digesters, for winter air conditioning of buildings and offices located in buildings, and particularly for sewage sludge drying.

What’s more, by producing energy from biogas, that is from a “renewable source”, the economic benefit of Green Certificates or Comprehensive Tariff  is added.