Servizi a Rete TOUR 2019

2. Ing. Paolo Romano
Presidente – Società Metropolitana Acque Torino Spa
Coordinatore Commissione Ricerca, Sviluppo e
Innovazione Tecnologica – UTILITALIA
Ing. Lorenza Meucci
Dirigente Laboratori, Ricerche e Controlli –
Società Metropolitana Acque Torino Spa
La ricerca e l’innovazione tecnologica per il
Servizio Idrico Integrato

3. SMAT Research Center
• Starting 2008, November 28
• Two locations, about 3500 square meters
• Instrumentation: more than 6 million €
• Projects closed in 2018: 12
• Projects ongoing in 2019: 38 (3 Horizon 2020)
• Partnerships with Universities, Polytechnics
and Research Centers (Turin, Florence,
Pavia, Rome, Lyon, Seattle, London, etc.): 15
• Collaboration with industry partners (Hera,
Iren, a2a, Thales Alenia Space, Convion, TIM,
etc.)
• Scientific publications in 2018: 19
• People: 7 full time, 66 included

4. This research project estimated:
• the vulnerability of groundwater resources to climate change effects, both in quantitative (water
availability) and qualitative (maintaining of physical and chemical characteristics) terms;
• the forecast (in probabilistic terms) of the trend of this vulnerability on a time scale of ten to
twenty years.
IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON GROUNDWATER RESOURCES
INTENDED FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION IN THE TURIN AREA
Evapotranspiration
Input
run-off
Output
run-off
Irrigation
Precipitation:
• Rainfall
• Snow
Deep percolation
WATER BALANCE
(balance between input and
output of water in a specific
“pixel” of soil)
Estimation of the different terms of the water balance
(meteorological datasets, water-soil-vegetation modelling,
hydrometers)
Spatial scale: river basins and sub-basins
Time scale: hydrological year and quarter
Considering two CO2 emission scenarios (RCP8.5 and
RCP4.5) and five GCMs, the probabilistic evolution of the
meteorological variables linked to the water balance terms
were estimated (2031-2050).
 High interannual variability of precipitation field
 Drainage shortage in the fourth quarter of the year
 Yearly drainage trend almost stationary
 Different monthly distribution of the precipitation
amount

5. Hydrodinamic cavitation for drinking water treatment
Study of hydrodinamic cavitation applicability in drinking water disinfection to compromise
microbial cell integrity and viability
Hydrodinamic cavitation is a physical-chemical phenomenon
induced by a pressure variation obtained through a hydraulic
system, determining the formation of a vapour (or vacuum) zone
within a fluid. The generated microbubbles (or “cavities”)
implode upon a subsequent pressure increase, inducing a series
of highly energetic phenomena.
1. Establishment of a robust and reproducible
experimental protocol
2. Several tests were performed accordingly, with a
tight control of uncertainties, allowing the isolation
and identification of the effect of different variables
(such as cavitation number)
3. The system was able to induce a 70-80%
abatement of the bacterial load (E. coli) upon a
two-hour loop treatment
The project provides an excellent baseline for the optimization required for the process
scale-up on a real water treatment plant scale

6. Methodology for failure forecasting along
‘Acquedotto della Valle di Susa’
main pipeline
PHASE 1 - ANALYSIS OF THE SYSTEM AND AVAILABLE TECHNOLOGIES
PHASE 2 - STUDY OF THE SYSTEM TESTING AND PRELIMINAR SIMULATIONS
PHASE 3 – SYSTEM TESTING
Project solution:
1 - Numerical simulations aimed at determining the fittest pressure transitory
2 - Generation methods of test transitories
3 - Project of test transitories generated with Portable Pressure Wave Maker (PPWM).

7. TURIN EARLY
WARNING
SYSTEM
-15 monitoring
stations at the
outlet of the
procuction plants
-12 monitoring stations
inside Punti Acqua
Parameters
• Clorine
• pH
• Temperature
• Redox
• Turbidity
• Oxigen
• Conductivity
• SOC

9. WASTEWATER TREATMENT MODEL
Research project with Environmental Engineering Department of Turin
Polytechnic University
ACTIVITY DESCRIPTION
• Plant and process data analysis, field measurements and lab
analysis campaign;
• Wastewater characterization and COD fractioning with STOWA
protocol and respirometry in different scenarios:
o dry and wet weather;
o medium and high wastewater load.
• Model calibration based on collected data;
• Simulations and optimizations.
OBJECTIVES
• Castiglione T.se plant wastewater treatment numerical model
based on ASM (Active Sludge Model) using a commercial
software;
• Castiglione T.se plant sludge anaerobic digestion numerical model
based on ADM (Anaerobic Digestione Model) using a commercial
software;
• Model use for simulations and process and energy consumption
optimization.

10. BIOMETHANE
Biogas
Water
removal
Active carbon
adsorption (H2S,
siloxanes, etc.)
Membrane
Upgrading
Compression
CO2
liquefation
Biomethane
to NG grid
• Italian Law: from march 2018 incentives on biomethane production for transportation system;
• Feasibility study for biogas upgrading for biomethane production and CO2 recovery in Castiglione T.se wastewater
treatment plant;
• Upgrading technology: membranes;
- Possibility of CO2 recovery;
- No heat neede for upgrading
- Technology diffusion.
• Plant size: 3 lines of 900 Nm3 biogas each;
• Installation divided into 3 phases:
 1st and 2nd biogas upgrading lines (1800 Nm3/h biogas)
 3rd biogas upgrading line (2700 Nm3/h biogas)
 CO2 recovery plant
• Economical and environmental analysis comparing:
 Biogas use for cogeneration (internal combustion engine)
 Biogas use for biomethane production
 Biogas use for biomethane prodution and cogeneration with natural gas
Most convenient
scenario

11. DEMOSOFC
DEMOnstration of large SOFC system fed with biogas from WWTP
OBJECTIVES
• Demo study (industrial scale) of an innovative and extremely
efficient technology for energy recovery from wastewater treatment
biogas, based on the use of Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFC). It will
be the first installation worldwide on industrial scale (174 kWe) of
SOFC for biogas conversion
• Medium-long term monitoring of the system for energy efficiency,
functionality, maintenance analysis
• Analysis of energy, environmental, economical performances
Financing Program: Horizon 2020.
Budget: 6 M€ budget, 4,5 M€ funding
Duration: 5 years
Project Partners: Politecnico di Torino, CONVION, VTT, London Imperial College
DESCRIPTION
• System installed in SMAT Collegno WWTP. Biogas produced from
anaerobic digestion of sludge recovered in SOFC co-generation
with extremely high efficiency (up to 56%).
• Pretreatment of biogas (active carbon adsorption) for H2S,
siloxanes, organic pollutants removal  very low emissions
• Pretreatment and first SOFC module installed in 2017, second
module running since October 2018
3 SOFC modules
174 kWe (3 x58kWe)

12. Biocontamination Integrated cOntrol of Wet sYstems for Space Exploration
EU Horizon 2020 funding.
Development of an integrated real-time biocontamination control system for water networks and humid
surfaces onboard ISS and for future human space exploration missions.
 Maintenance of high water quality standards represents a challenge for
long-term space missions, where drinking water provision will solely
depend on purification of recirculated and condensed water recovery, and
accurate analytical methods will not be applicable or available.
 Even on Earth, there are situations where growth of waterborne pathogens
may constitute a threat for human health, representing potential options for
BIOWYSE exploitation.
The system, including a silver coated water storage tank, an automated ATP-based biomonitoring station and
two UV-LED decontamination units, demonstrated an excellent degree of sensitivity even on lowly
contaminated water samples and in sub-optimal operational settings.
SMAT drafted a market analysis of the prototype, highlighting its potential and suggesting the desirable
modifications needed for its commercial exploitation for Earth-related applications (such as hospitals and
water distribution networks)  Currently working on future funding opportunities to this aim

13. GRAZIE