The integrated hub for waste recycling, enhancement and disposal at Ginestreto (Sogliano al Rubicone – Forlì-Cesena) has become a success story in terms of respect for the environment and maximum productivity from waste materials.
The figures for the hub bear witness to the effectiveness of the Sogliano Ambiente Model:
The Ginestreto integrated hub exemplifies a replicable, exportable and versatile model.
The Ginestreto integrated hub receives non- hazardous household and industrial waste. It serves an area which mainly includes sections outside the Optimal Territorial Zone with regard to special waste. During the reception phase, after having checked the analytical certificates and specific characterisation for each load, the waste is logged in and its conformity is checked with regard to the authorisations issued. It is then sent to the various installations.
The waste management cycle in the Ginestreto hub was completed in 2010 when a state-of-the-art stabilising plant was installed to treat an organic waste volume of about 40,000 tons a year. The plant ceiling was integrated with a system consisting of more than 6,500 photovoltaic panels producing energy from the sun. About 700,000 kWh of energy are produced every year, only a fraction of which is used for the stabilising process; the rest is sold to the government provider which then feeds it into the grid for civil and industrial uses.
The products of organic waste degradation/stabilising are:
The sorting and enhancement plant for the dry fraction at Ginestreto receives about 40,000 tons of waste every year, from which the various components - paper, cardboard, wood, plastics, metal, glass - are separated mechanically or manually .
The plants now includes a system to treat sorted waste, which is crushed then used for energy production outside the site.
Any waste which cannot be further separated and recycled is landfilled on site, using the best available technologies in order to limit pollutants, with 160,000 tons being landfilled on average every year to produce energy from biogas and secondary materials for reuse (ammonium sulphate from the leachate treatment on site).
The waste is suitably positioned and compacted mechanically, then accumulated in uniform layers, to make sure that the whole landfill profile matches the project configuration.
In October 2013 a treatment plant was installed for the landfill leachate, with a view to returning 15% concentrated material, 10% ammonium sulphate and 75% treated industrial water which is suitable for re-introduction into surface water streams.
The concentrated material is returned to the landfill where it supports waste degradation processes for biogas production; finally, the ammonium sulphate is transferred and used in the food industry or as fertiliser for farming.
The exhaust fumes, checked by continuous systems, are treated with post combustors to abate their residual impurity components.
The plant capacity is 24,000 tons a year, i.e. about 70 m3 of waste per day.
The biogas produced from waste degradation is captured and treated to be enhanced for electricity production. In Ginestreto every hour 2,400 Nm3 of biogas, with a 35% methane content, produce about 3,200 kWh of energy, in respect of a total landfilled volume amounting to 1.7 million m3 of waste.
The cogeneration plant produces 22-25 million kWh a year in total, which are delivered to the grid and, in minimal part, used in the water treatment plant.
In 2007 the Ginestreto site was integrated by a system to produce energy using combustion fume heat from cogeneration engines. By activating an ORC cycle (Rankine Cycle with a low boiling organic fluid) the enhancement of the excess heat allows for the production of about 1,500,000 kWh of energy a year, using a plant with an installed power amounting to 350 kW.
