A cooperation between Valmet, Hera Group and Ayrion for the EU-financed Life Steam project
May 24, 2022
A cooperation has been initiated between Valmet, Hera Group and Ayrion for the Life Steam project, which is an EU-financed project within the Life programme*. Hera Group is one of Italy's largest multi-utility companies within waste treatment, water and gas. This is a joint effort and Valmet will in the beginning of 2023 deliver a pretreatment BioTrac demonstration plant, with a capacity of 23 tons a day of dry material to the Hera plant near Bologna, Italy.
The Life Steam project will develop an innovative prototype based on the pretreatment technology to effectively pretreat green waste before sending it to anaerobic digestion. Low value green waste will be converted into advanced biofuels for the transport sector and into fertilizers for agricultural use. Valmet and Hera together with Ayrion, a company that operates in the field of energy production from renewable sources, are the partners in the Life Steam project.
“This is a new application with great potential for the Valmet BioTrac pretreatment system and it is opening up a new business segment for the system. Two successful pilot trials have been done in Valmet Fiber Technology Center in Sundsvall, Sweden, where the steam treatment of the biomass improved the biogas yield dramatically”, says Tomas Jonsson, Sales Manager, Biomass conversion, Fiber processing business unit, Valmet.
“We are confident that a strong and qualified partner like Valmet has the necessary expertise and experience to meet the challenges of this ambitious project, in which we place great expectations for the development of biomethane”, says Enrico Piraccini, Ecological Transition Manager at Hera spa.
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*The Life programme is the EU’s funding instrument for the environment and climate action. During the current 2014-2020 funding period the programme will contribute approximately EUR 3.4 billion. |