Paper Board Alliance is a corporate group specialized in producing recycled paper and core board. Two main production sites are part of the group and are energy intensive sites. Each site has cogeneration with a gas turbine and recovery boilers. In Cartiera dell’Adda there is also a Biomass cogen plant that produces one third of the steam needed by the mill. In the wastewater system, connected to anaerobic digestion phase there is a small production of biogas that is used in the gas turbine mixed with natural gas, that contributes to decarbonize (3% of the overall consumption) the energy production.
In RE-WITCH, Cartiera dell’Adda is involved in the development of a case involving existing waste heat from equipment installed in the mill, in which the RE-WITCH innovations will be integrated, and their potential impact can be estimated.
CART introduces also an affiliated partner ICP who will become the 4th demo site of the project. Here the technology developed by SORP will be installed, waste heat coming from an air compressor, which will be used to cool water and later used to (air) condition an electrical room instead of using existing electrical chillers.
What do you like in this project? What do you find most important?
I like the wide consortium that allows to share different points of views. The main topic is to recover energy that would be wasted in the environment; that’s one of the primary targets of the EU in the roadmap toward decarbonizing industries.
Tell us a bit about your background.
I am a mechanical engineer, PhD in Medical Tecnologies and Master in production of paper. I worked in R&D of medical robotics and innovative surgical devices for 5 years . Later I moved to the paper field, working eleven years in a paper machinery company and since the beginning of this year in a company producing paper as energy and project manager.
What brought you into this field? How did you get interest in STEM?
My fav class was mathematics and science for the whole school period. When choosing the university, I’ve decided what I thought was the hardest for a woman – ie mechanical eng.- I like the challenges😊.
What were some of the challenges you faced as a woman in STEM?
The first one at university time was during the hardest exam on Mechanical eng.; I took the highest mark at the written exam, but this was not enough, they decided to reduce my mark asking a detail that only a man could know…
In my job at a machinery company (mostly man-made) during the first year’s meetings, no one was listening to my words, even if I said something really matching the point. After years, I gained more confidence and started empowering my thoughts. Experience helped, but we need to be three times more prepared than males. That’s truth, but this will help to change the conditions.
If you’ve ever faced uncertainty about whether you belonged in a STEM field, how did you tackle that?
We are battle girls, we always fight.
Any advice / message for young women in highschool? Why is our sector a great one?
I’ve worked mainly in two fields, medical devices and paper industries. Both are very interesting and full of challenges. If you wish to know the world, science and technology are your means but you also need to be very strong and prepared for life so also philosophy and literature will help you!
What are your hopes for the future of women in STEM (in regards to opportunities, stereotypes, etc.)?
I hope that my young daughter will live in a different world, even if she’s more an artist than a STEM girl; a different world that would not count on gender and race. Government should make laws that allow to have equal opportunities according to this principle.
Did you have a mentor or inspiration person?
Lady Oscar, my mother.
See our infographics on women in science/heating and cooling and the energy sectors here.
