Jun 23 2010
Pirelli Ambiente, the company in the Pirelli Group operating in the field of renewable energy, signed a licensing agreement with Bosco International, which promotes systems and industrial processes for a sustainable environment, which will allow the Australian company to use the Pirelli patent for production of high quality solid recovered fuel (HQ-SRF) derived from municipal solid waste (MSW).
The Pirelli technology will initially be used in the Latrobe Valley in Victoria, Australia, as part of the program ‘Towards Zero Waste Policy’ introduced by the local government for containment of waste, with the aim of converting the 600,000 tons of MSW produced annually by the city of Melbourne into fuel. In particular, the exchange of technology will stimulate an investment by Bosco International to develop an HQ-SRF plant in Australia, once authorizations are obtained from local authorities.
The Pirelli HQ-SRF is obtained by adding other components with a high calorific power ( plastic from D.C. and rubber) to dry solid urban waste. It can be used to partially replace fossil fuels in already existing, non-dedicated, plants, such as cement works and thermal power plants and it yields significant environmental benefits for the population, both in terms of lower emissions in particular of CO2, NOX and SO2 from fossil fuels, and in economic terms (lower waste disposal costs).
The integrated system promoted by Pirelli Ambiente has been successfully used since late 2002 in the Cuneo Provincial Authority Area, with the Idea Granda project, a public-private partnership owned 49% by Pirelli, and 51% by local utility ACSR, with cement works Buzzi-Unicem of Robilante, which uses HQ-SRF in its main burner substituting more than 40% of coal-petkoke needed. From its beginning, this system has meant energy recovered from waste in the area rose more than 32%, a level greater than the Italian average (7%) and greater than the European average (27%). In addition, according to a study by the University of Milan in Bicocca using the Life Cycle Assessment Method, use of Pirelli HQ-SRF is, respectively, 90 and 72 times more advantageous for the environment than landfills and incinerators.