Overview
The Malagrotta Waste Storage Site was a large landfill and waste treatment facility located near Rome, Italy. Among the various facilities on site, there are two mechanical biological treatment plants called TMBs for unsorted wastes. Over the last year and a half, both of these plants were affected by fires which damaged both of its TMB M1 and TMB M2 facilities. The site needed a conventional fire detection system with thermal cameras that can effectively prevent early-stage fires in the landfill.
Challenge
The unfortunate fire incidents in Malagrotta TMBs are believed to have been caused by lithium batteries carelessly thrown into the unsorted waste, which are difficult to detect and generate extremely high temperatures over time. Over the past couple of years, the presence of lithium batteries in waste streams has become a recurring issue, prompting various companies to find preventive detection systems for these items. The fires in the TMB facilities were catastrophic for Rome’s waste processing cycle as they handle approximately 1.500 tons of urban solid waste per day. After extensive research, Dahua was chosen by E. Giovi, the company that manages the Malagrotta landfill and its associated facilities, to address this safety issue.
Solution
In partnership with its local partner Zerotecnica, Dahua developed an early fire detection system equipped with cutting-edge hybrid cameras, covering the vast area of the Malagrotta Waste Storage Site. The solution effectively monitors the temperature in various sensitive zones of the facility and accurately detects any smoke columns produced by waste at the same time.
The thermographic and thermometric technology enables capturing of infrared radiation emitted by materials as well as their respective temperatures without the need for any physical contact. This intelligent technology can be applied in several scenarios, including perimeter security in critical environments, search and rescue of missing persons, and detection of early fire in various facilities.
Furthermore, the system was built starting from the installation of a fiber optic perimeter ring where 17 hybrid thermal cameras (15 Pro 5 Series and 2 Eureka Light Series) were connected and installed to monitor internal areas and conveyor belts. Everything is carefully managed by the DSS centralized platform. In terms of alarms, temperature and smoke detections were set. The video surveillance system is also integrated with both traditional fire system and industrial automation system. In case of emergencies, the plant will automatically shut down in the affected zones, and extinguishing systems will automatically activate in case of fire.
Results
Dahua, with its local partner, successfully delivered a robust fire detection system in the Malagrotta Waste Storage Site, ensuring the safety in both TMBs and its surrounding areas. It is in line with the 2022 technical regulation by Italy’s Ministry of Interior that requires certain types of critical sites (e.g. waste storage facilities) to implement remote temperature monitoring in order to prevent serious damage to people, property, and the environment.
“Dahua was chosen for this project mainly because of two reasons: First, Dahua offers a series of hybrid cameras that can detect both temperature and smoke in a single device; Second, the availability and support provided during the design phase and system commissioning,” explained Gianluca Corelli, Technical Manager at Zerotecnica.
“I would like to thank Zerotecnica and Dahua Technology for allowing us to safely resume operations, eliminating the risk of further catastrophic events like those of the past two years,” says Massimo Corradetti, Technical Director at E. Giovi.
