From industrial and environmental problem to energy opportunity. The French giant Veolia Water and another pool of waste disposal companies are studying new treatments by focusing on alternative energies.
The news is that our Enea will give substance to the REEF 2W project with a European value to make site management less problematic. Companies will commit their own resources in addition to those of the EU, opening new green paths in one of the most difficult environmental sectors. The circularity of the project must have repercussions on the entire waste treatment compared to millionaire management contracts.
Efforts focus on exploitation of the organic fraction to produce energy in treatment platforms. The environmental impacts will be decreasing. Indeed, REEF 2W wants to develop models that allow to maximize the effects coming from the biological fermentation of biomasses.
In some European countries there are already prototypes of this type. They are local and confined to small sites. But the EU with Enea is aiming for a higher and more widespread level: produce enough energy to satisfy not only the waste collection site, but also local distribution grids or mini-grids. Chain effects, therefore, on urban agglomerations in contrast to the critical issues generally associated with waste collection sites.
Enea is the leader of 11 research centers and companies. In addition to Veolia Water, it brings together Kompetenzzentrum Wasser Berlin and companies from Croatia, Austria and the Czech Republic. The novelty also lies in the methods of participation and communication envisaged in the project. The results that will be obtained will be transmitted to the final decision-makers through training and information courses in the various countries where the multiutilities are present.
An even more coveted point of arrival is that energy neutrality of disposal platforms which could arise from a good integration between the municipal solid waste chain and purification plants. Only in passing we recall here the controversies of Municipalities and committees in favor of controlled disposal plants with low climate-altering emissions. Legal cases, even recent ones, may no longer arise if the plants are conceived or reconverted as assumed in the REEF 2W.
