Owned by Enomondo, it has a production capacity of 50,000 tonnes per year, obtained by recovering clippings and prunings from public green areas and waste from the agri-food chain.
Faenza, 20 June 2022 – The Caviro Extra factory in Faenza was the location this morning for the opening of a production plant for a new type of natural fertiliser: Composted Soil Improver from Agri-Food Chain Waste (ACFA). Compared to chemical fertilisers, this product has a reduced cost and provides a supply of organic matter and nutrients to the soil.
The plant, the result of an investment of around 8,5 million euros, has a production capacity of around 50,000 tonnes/year and is owned by Enomondo – a Caviro Extra and Herambiente joint venture.
By 2022, it is estimated that the Faenza plant will be able to produce over 130,000 tonnes of fertiliser products for agriculture, 75,000 tonnes of which consists of the three types of soil improvers: mixed composted soil improver, green composted soil improver, and ACFA
«This new plant provides an additional service to farmers and members of the Caviro Group, – spiega Sergio Celotti, Managing Director of Enomondo -. In a global context of rising fertiliser prices and low availability, we provide a natural, low-cost product obtained from agri-food chain waste. It is a process perfectly in keeping with our circular economy,because it returns value to the land and the vineyard».
Plant function and benefits for the soil.
Inside the aisles, lanes are formed of clippings and prunings and digestate from CAVIRO Extra’s anaerobic digestion plants, plants dedicated to the production of biogas, which are periodically turned over by a large “heap-turning” machine. Thisprocess aerates the product and facilitates its natural fermentation (this is why it is called an aerobic system). To finish, the product undergoes a curing period and is then screened and prepared for shipment.
«The entire process takes place within a di 10,000 m2, structure under constant aspiration, – adds Giovanni Ferrucci, Sales Manager at Enomondo -. The air is then sent to large biofilters to reduce odour emissions, a pledge that Caviro has made with the Municipality of Faenza».
The tests for the production of ACFA began in 2017 as part of a project overseen by the University of Bologna and performed on the land of the Navarra Foundation of Ferrara. The encouraging results led to the start of the approval process of this new type of soil improver by the Italian Ministry of Agriculture: on 31 May, ACFA was officially recognised with the publication in the Official Gazette of the Decree of 2 February 2022 on the updating of Annexes 2 and 7 to Italian Legislative Decree 75/2010 regarding the “Reorganisation and review of the regulations on fertilisers, in accordance with Article 13 of Law no. 88 of 7 July 2009»
«The prospects for the future,” adds Ferrucci, “are good: the plant is set to increase its productivity to 80,000 tonnes per year, to meet the growing demands of the market. For the moment, the soil improver is withdrawn in bulk, but we are already evaluating the start of pellet production to facilitate the transport and use of the compost on certain crops.».
Field tests show that, when used long term, ACFA permits a reduction in chemical fertiliser of up to 50%. After 4 years of trials we have obtained an excellent product which is so stable that it reaches perfect quality parameters in 30 days of fermentation rather than the usual 90,” concludes the Managing Director. It is a product that comes from the vineyard and returns to the vineyard, regenerating the soil and also allowing new plants to grow more healthily and with better organoleptic characteristics.
The biomethane plant and CO2 recovery.
Another dimension is, therefore, added to the Caviro Group’s circular economy, which for many years has recovered the waste of the agri-food chain to transform it into energy, noble products and biofuels.
At the same site, in 2019 a plant was opened for the production of advanced biomethane from the fermentation in the absence of oxygen of residual materials from the food processing industry (through an anaerobic digestion process). This plant, declared by the CIB (Italian Biogas Consortium) as the first of its kind in Italy, makes it possible to separate carbon dioxide (CO2) from biogas, thus obtaining a very pure biomethane, certified as a sustainable energy source, which is fed into the SNAM national grid. Obtained from the process waste is a digestate of sludge and water, the main compound from which the ACFA soil improver is obtained.
In 2020 the biomethane plant underwent a further upgrade so the outgoing CO2 is now recovered and purified: around 7,000 liquefied tonnes per year are saved from being released into the atmosphere and become a resource for the food market. «Being an organic and renewable CO2,” explains Fabio Baldazzi, General Manager of Caviro Extra – we had permission to release it into the atmosphere but we chose to recover it so it could have a second life as a noble product. This is sustainability according to Caviro: a process that ensures an economic return, therefore work and employment, but at the same time improves the environment».
