Waste, so want not for energy

Sydney Morning Herald
Tuesday 23/9/2008 Page: 30

AN international "green energy" company is offering councils technology to turn solid waste or sewage sludge into pellets which, rather than burnt, can be used to produce a synthetic gas with similar properties to natural gas. Global Nrg Ltd will design, fund, build and run waste-to-energy plants, which it claims eliminate landfill and the resulting greenhouse gas, at no cost to councils apart from the normal tipping fees.

The company sorts rubbish mechanically, selling the plastics, metals and other recyclables, and turning the residue into fuel pellets, which are converted to gas to make electricity or used as fuel in kilns. The gas can be used in producing ethanol, biodiesel and jet fuel. "There is no commercial risk to a council doing away with landfill and eliminating greenhouse gas," the president of Global Nrg, Mike Bartlett, said.

The company also "mines" landfills. "As close as we can estimate there are some 500 active landfills and some 1200 closed landfills in Australia. These landfills contain literally millions of tonnes of potential feedstock for energy via pelletisation, which could be used to provide a minimum of 40 per cent of Australia's power needs with green electricity for years to come.

"The wind does not always blow, nor the sun shine and water does not always flow, but as long as there is mankind on Earth there will be waste, so unlike solar, wind and hydro power, waste-to-energy is the only renewable resource that can support base load to the power grid," Mr Bartlett said.

A Canadian pelletising plant has been built in Toronto and plants have been ordered for New York and other US cities. "In China we are building 1200 waste-to-energy plants for the Chinese Government to supply green electricity," he said. Another company is applying technology to capture greenhouse gases, at the Macarthur Resource Recovery Park at Narellan in southwest Sydney, "at minimal extra cost to the local community".

There, WSN Environmental Services handles waste from Camden, Campbelltown, Wollondilly and Wingecarribee councils. Its Ecolibrium facility sells the recyclables, captures some of the methane emissions to produce energy to power its operations, plus the equivalent of 1700 homes, and produces more water than it uses by extracting water from waste and harvesting stormwater.

"The cost-benefit scenario could improve even further for councils when the carbon pollution reduction scheme comes into play and a dollar figure is put on emissions from waste," a WSN spokesman, Aaron Findlay, said. WSN has opened another methane project at its Eastern Creek landfill, which will produce enough energy for 5000 homes.