Acea Infrastructure is the first multiutility in Italy to have obtained, in July 2021, the ICMQ (Institute for Certification and Quality Mark for Construction Products and Services) BIM (Building Information Modeling) certification for engineering design. The BIM methodology, which represents a revolution in design processes, employs intelligent digital models throughout the life cycle of a project: from initial concept to construction, operation, and maintenance.

Since the beginning, the company chose Revit software for BIM design, particularly the MEP version, which supports the design of piping systems. However, it became apparent that this approach could not be pursued for industrial plants due to a lack of fundamental coordination between the various phases of the design of the process and of the piping. Initially, P&IDs were manually developed using AutoCAD, material lists were extracted from Excel sheets compiled by designers, and piping was drawn natively with Revit, compromising compliance, integration, and final verification of correspondence between P&ID and piping.

The goal was primarily to integrate and import what was developed in ESApro into the Revit software (which remains the main modeling software for BIM).

Among the various software analyzed, ESApro, a suite of programs for plants developed in Italy, immediately appeared comprehensive, easy to use, and intuitive. In particular, the fact that ESApro was an AutoCAD application, as well as the product used up to that point for the drafting of P&IDs, gave rise to hope for a transition that would reduce learning and implementation times to a minimum, while the the fact that the assistance service was provided directly by the Italian parent company is certainly a plus.

Furthermore, the possibility of being able to extract the work completed in IFC format (through the BricsCAD CAD suite) made the transfer of information between industrial design and the BIM Coordinator immediate. In 2023, Acea Infrastructure adopted ESApro, and the replacement process was smooth and without significant inertia. A few days of training were sufficient to start working with ESApro, and within a few months, the team became fully autonomous, also thanks to the help of the ESAin assistance service.

At the same time, a pilot project was launched to test the functionalities in the field. Currently, Acea Infrastructure successfully uses all ESApro modules for process diagrams, 3D modeling, instrumentation, and the production of isometric drawings.

A significant case is the pilot project completed at the end of June 2023 for the “Requalification of the sludge treatment line and anaerobic digestion and implementation of systems for energy recovery and efficiency” under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), within a wastewater treatment plant serving approximately 300,000 equivalent inhabitants. The client is a major Integrated Water Service Manager in the Italian territory.

The project primarily involved the production of a technical and economic feasibility project related to the revamping of the existing anaerobic digestion plant and the implementation of a biogas upgrading system. The project was then used as the basis for the tender of the integrated design and erection. In addition to the complexity of the design, the client’s request included managing the project according to the BIM process following UNI 11337 regulations. In the mechanical design, the challenge was to create an informative model containing the client’s required data, exportable in .IFC format, and manageable on ACDat, in line with the specifications, to integrate various disciplines involved in the project.

Acea Infrastructure played a crucial role in the process, providing the BIM Manager, BIM Coordinator, and BIM Specialists. Three BIM Specialists were involved in the project to develop the information model, an energy designer to develop the process and piping part of the anaerobic digestion plant, a BIM Coordinator who managed the coordination and checks on the internal MEP models and on the structural structures developed internally, a BIM Manager, as well as various other professional figures, since the project also involved other sectors of the purification plant.

ESApro’s contribution focused mainly on the design and modeling of:

• Thermal power plant serving digesters
• Biogas Cleaning plant for biogas purification
• Biogas Upgrading plant, compression, and injection into the network
• Piping and Interconnecting

Through the use of ESApro in coordination with Revit it was possible to obtain an integrated and effective design of the commissioned intervention, in compliance with current legislation and with great satisfaction of the end customer. The ability to export the designed model to .IFC allowed the delivery of the entire coordinated BIM model to the client, who used it as a bidding basis for the subsequent detailed design and construction phase.