Dolina

A&T 2000 SpA is a public waste manager for 51 municipalities (ca. 206.000 inhabitants) in Friuli Venezia Giulia Region (Italy) and it provides services from collection to transport and treatment/disposal for urban and assimilated waste. In 2019, A&T 2000 SpA was called to participate in DECISIVE project whose aims, among its targets, are to set up demonstrations of innovative treatment of urban organic waste following a circular concept: waste has to be collected and treated in a limited area and the treatment should provide materials for farming or gardening and extra energy to be used by local community.

Following a thoughtful analysis of advantages and disadvantages to different potential locations, A&T 2000 SpA decided to set up the pilot experiment in the municipality of San Dorligo della Valle – Dolina (5.729 inhabitants) located at the border between Italy and Slovenija. The area is characterized by a heterogeneous territory hosting a protected transboundary natural area. Cultivation of olive trees and vineyards are the main agriculture activities. Furthermore, Dolina’s territory is served by Trieste free port facilities and it hosts the most important ship engine factory in the North-East of Italy which provides canteen services to its workers and it is looking for innovative and cost-effective solutions to dispose of biowaste from catering services.

General aims of DECISIVE project and the installation of a pilot Anaerobic Digestion system fit very well with Dolina needs. The municipality, in fact, is looking for a cost-saving way for managing biowaste and organic waste produced in schools and companies’ canteens so it was glad to take part of the project having nowadays the society’s biowaste treatment plant far from Dolina. On the other hand, Dolina offers a collaborative municipal administration, a large and immediately available property where to place the plant, a number of different organic waste sources (householding, companies and school canteens), famers interested in using digestate produced in the process.

The pilot Anaerobic Digestion system will be placed on part of the property of the “Comunela”, the management of the common properties of Dolina, whose extension is 750 m2 approximately. The “Comunela” has already signed an agreement to let A&T 2000 SpA enlarge the current facility to a nowadays unused part of property.

In 2018 A&T 2000 SpA collected in the municipality of Dolina about 320 tons of organic waste by a door-to-door collection from household/restaurants and biomass conferred to platform was 250 tons.
In mid-2020 organic waste collected is supposed to be doubled thanks to recent A&T 2000 SpA relationship with canteens from industrial companies present in the near territory.
The technology chosen to urban biowaste treatment is a small capacity Anaerobic Digestion system (200-400 ton/year) with energy recovery. Nowadays current treatment site for this waste is far from the municipality so, placing it in Comunela’s property (that is inside of the municipality territory) will reduce transportation of biowaste. Moreover, A&T 2000 SpA aims to explore possibilities of using this experimental plant in association with a solar toaster for chipped biomass, placed in the nearby biomass platform. Last process has the aim to reduce volume and weight of the biomass and to prepare material for energy recovery in another experimental facility; the system is therefore a great resource for renewable energy production that also provides agronomic added-value products (f.i.: amendments, organic fertilizer) very useful for agriculture production.

A&T2000 SpA is sure of the potential of the Anaerobic Digestion system tested in DECISIVE project so, after an experimental period, the company will propose this kind of equipment to Municipalities (served by A&T2000 SpA) characterized by being far from main biowaste facilities. The company hopes also to enlarge this technology in areas served by other companies or in foreign countries that need innovative solutions to manage organic waste.