Page 14 - Industrial Technology E XTRA 24th August 2020

INDUSTRIAL ETHERNET...

From buffalo mozzarella to

green energy

CC-Link IE networking helps

biomass plant automation at a
different kind of dairy farm
aximising the use of
agricultural by-products to
reduce waste and improve
Msustainability has several
positives; including reducing a business’
environmental impact and maximising an important by-product to have a positive impact on the
profit opportunity. This is why Italian farm Roana environment whilst generating increased revenue for
has invested in a biomass plant that utilises the business. Local renewable energy specialist
livestock manure and other organic waste to ProgestAmbiente was chosen to build the green
generate energy. power plant.
To optimise its automation infrastructure, the Carmen Iemma, co-owner of Roana, explains:
farm required an advanced control network to “Roana has been interested in implementing a
monitor the anaerobic digestion process and biomass plant for years. The project suggested by
maximise productivity. CC-Link IE Field provided ProgestAmbiente was particularly appealing, as the
the right solution, connecting a series of Mitsubishi company was able to tailor a solution that would
Electric factory automation components with a address our commercial requirements and still fit
flexible open industrial Ethernet solution delivering with our existing operations and infrastructure.”
Gigabit bandwidth. The plant consists of scrapers and pipelines,
Roana Zootechnical farm is in the countryside of collecting all the manure from the stables into a pre-
Latina, Italy, and is home to approximately 1100 treatment tank, which homogenises and equalises
water buffalos. Every day, these animals provide the material. This tank is connected to an anaerobic
over 3 tonnes of milk, which is used to produce a digester system equipped with submersible mixers.
celebrated buffalo mozzarella cheese. Along with At this stage, different bacterial strains digest
3
product, the herd produces approximately 60m per biomass in an oxygen-free environment at
day of useable livestock manure. Before this temperatures similar to those in a buffalo’s
becomes fertilizer for Roana’s agricultural fields, stomach. As a result of this biochemical process,
however, it can be used to produce bioenergy. The bacteria break down complex organic substances,
farm was interested in maximising the use of this generating a methane-rich biogas.

August 2020 • INDUSTRIAL TECHNOLOGY EXTRA • p14