The countdown has started for the elimination of olfactory nuisance caused by the former Friel plant in Cascinette, on the border between the territories of Briona and Fara. The plant which has been producing electricity since 2011 by powering a 1 Megawatt naval engine with biogas created from the fermentation of agricultural biomass and livestock effluents will undergo a substantial upgrade. Enibioch4in, the Eni group company that purchased around twenty production facilities powered by biogas from the Bolzano-based Friel, has presented the request for authorization for the conversion to biomethane to the Province of Novara. «The current anaerobic digestion process for the production of biogas – explain Enibioch4in officials, Roberto Lavecchia and Davide Malin – will no longer be used for the direct production of electricity. Biogas will become “circular” biomethane, produced mainly from agricultural and waste raw materials.”
The biogas will be «refined» into biomethane: «The area of relevance of the plant will be extended to the South-West to accommodate the equipment capable of purifying the biogas and “transforming” it into biomethane». The upgrading of the plant which will be discussed in tomorrow’s services conference, involves the construction of a new digestate storage tank equipped with a cover to contain the emission of bad odors into the atmosphere.
The “biofilter” has also been activated: “The new structure of the plant – underline Lavecchia and Malin – will favor a reduction of at least 80 percent in greenhouse gas emissions”. The biomethane will be injected into the local network, powering almost 1,500 families: «The excavation to lay the connection pipe to the 2igas network – says the mayor of Fara Aldo Giordano – has already been partly activated. The remaining part will travel underground on the coplanar roads of the ring road, until it reaches the distributor area at the grape bunch roundabout.”
Silvano Collodo of the Fara Ecologica Committee and Sandro Mossetti, owner of the nearby Fara swimming pool, asked Enibioch4in officials for interventions to mitigate and eliminate the smells which at certain times penalize residents greatly. The mayor of Briona Davide Maria Giordano: «At the services conference we will reiterate the request for the use of all possible methodologies to contain the inconveniences, including the rapid burial of residues from biogas production used as agricultural fertilizer».
