Instead of marking another important project milestone – the launch of the 2nd demonstration site in Dolina, Italy, the DECISIVE project consortium met online instead in order to look back on a pandemic-affected spring.
When it comes to the most crucial and visible part of the project, the demonstration sites, they were heavily affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. After a successful launch in Lyon and a remarkable attention it raised among the local community there it had to be put on hold as a large part of the feedstock stopped flowing in. The closure of schools, restaurants and institutes the demonstration site was getting its biowaste from limited the feedstock input. With the restart of the hospitality sector in France, however the local operator of the demonstration site expects the anaerobic digestor operation to stabilise in September.
The Italian demonstration site, however, is nowhere near a confirmation on when the launch could take place. But on the bright side, the future operator did find a manufacturer for the micro anaerobic digester and its installation. The very first forecast for something to happen is now September when the equipment would be manufactured and delivered on site. Other preliminary activities, such as waste characterisation and mapping had to be pushed back to summer 2020 in order to still have that analysis done before the launch of the site.
