Brescia, 4 March 2022 - A2A Is moving forward with the decarbonization of Brescia: by 2020, in fact, well ahead of national targets, it has ended the use of coal and shifted to the production of heat for district heating from greener sources, thus improving the environmental performance of its plants and the quality of the city’s air.
A2A is also committed to identifying green sources, above all the recovery and reuse of industrial heat which would otherwise be dispersed into the atmosphere.
The Ori Martin steelworks was the first industrial partner with which, in 2016, A2A reached an agreement for a challenging pilot project in Brescia which involved the recovery of heat in the iron and steel sector, integrating the heat into the city's district heating system: the i-Recovery system still represents a fundamental element in the decarbonization of the city and is an important example of the circular use of energy sources available in the area.
The collaboration between A2A and Ori Martin, years later, is being strengthened further in order to exploit innovative, cutting-edge technologies that recover the heat dispersed by industry even more efficiently, integrating it into the district heating network.
The partnership has seen two companies, each a leader in its sector, unite to work on a new project to put on an industrial scale the innovative technology of a large heat pump (LHP) of the latest generation able to efficiently recover heat at a low temperature from the cooling system of electric furnaces.
The LHP developed by Turboden (a Brescia-based company of the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries group which supplies reliable, tested technological solutions for the harnessing of renewable sources and energy efficiency) is integrated into the existing recovery circuit, boosting its performance and making it possible to recover more heat to be fed into the city's district heating network.
This project, under the name “HeatLeap”, was promoted by Turboden in partnership and with the support of the project funding sector at CSMT Gestione and, thanks to the project’s highly innovative nature, was approved and partly funded by the European Union’s LIFE programme for the environment and climate action.
The project is an experimental one, the first of its kind in Italy, which underlines the importance placed by Ori Martin on the issues of energy savings and the circular economy.
The optimization of resources and reduction of the environmental impact have always been key elements of the policy of the company which, in recent years, has made numerous investments in plant and processes.
This new plant will become operational by October 2022, will guarantee the recovery of a total of 22 GWh (equal to the requirements of 3,500 families) and will lead to a further reduction of greenhouse gas emissions (in particular of CO2) of about 5,000 tonnes a year thanks to the connection with the district heating network.
The pump will deliver a thermal power of 6 MWt and will be able to adapt its functioning to the specific process conditions, maximising the energy recovery from the plant.
It will also be able to regulate the heat output temperature depending on the specific requirements of the district heating network and up to a maximum of 120°C, an important innovation with respect to the maximum temperatures reachable by this technology.
Possible future applications of the technology demonstrated will be assessed by CSMT in the sphere of the HeatLeap project, paving the way for the replicability of an initiative which virtuously combines environmental impact with economic and energy sustainability.