Tuesday, December 14, 2010

A full day of touring the Sydney and Central Coast area to view established and emerging technologies was followed by two information-packed days of speakers and poster presentations, reports Dr Patricia Chamberlain.

It was clear from the first day of the conference that the waste and resource recovery industry needs to play a major role in a renewable bioenergy future. Existing and proposed technologies were presented to harness the calorific value of a diverse range of residual materials such as sewage, food waste, garden organics, agricultural residues, wood and municipal solid waste.

Technologies included anaerobic digestion, combustion, gasification, pyrolysis, plasma gasification, co-firing with coal, as well as processes for converting biomass to ethanol and biodiesel. While some of these technologies are still in research and development, some have already been commercialised.

The clear message of the conference was that biomass (including residual waste) has the potential to play a significant role in clean renewable energy generation while optimising resource utilisation, fuel security and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Key issues that the waste and resource recovery industry must address in order to realise this potential include:

• Know your feedstocks: Energy solutions need to be tailored with a clear knowledge of the available feedstocks. The success of a project often rests in ensuring that the particular technological solution chosen is designed for a properly characterised material stream. Where a solution is required for a particularly heterogeneous stream, technologies and pre-sorting/pre-treatment needs to be designed to handle that. Securing long-term feedstock supply is also important.
• Economic drivers: The Australian Government’s Renewable Energy Target and associated Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) are significant in ensuring the commercial viability of many energy from waste projects. However, the value of RECs is still low and future uncertainty regarding their value makes investment in some technologies difficult. Uncertainty about the value of potential greenhouse gas emissions reductions is also increasing the risk of project development. Government funding for research, development and demonstration plants is crucial to prove the robustness of technologies.
• .Government guidance is important: The ACT government has commissioned a pre-feasibility study into the introduction of thermal processing of currently undervalued or wasted materials flows in the ACT. In NSW, legislation mandates that ethanol make up 4% of petrol and biodiesel make up 2% of diesel (based on the total volume of NSW sales). State government frameworks and targets for energy from waste and bioenergy are required to ensure a smooth and timely process from project design to approvals to commissioning.
• Multiple revenue/value streams: Many bioenergy projects create multiple revenue/value streams such as composts, fertilisers, chars capable of sequestering carbon in soils and the production of chemicals. The value of these products can help bioenergy stand out amongst other renewable energy options such as wind and solar. Multiple revenue streams also reduce financial risk.
• It’s not all about electricity: Biofuels such as ethanol and biodiesel are a potentially significant part of the future renewable energy mix. Use of biomass for producing heating or cooling is under-utilised and represents an important opportunity.
• One size does not fit all: Energy from waste can include modular, transportable and regional solutions. As an example, one presentation involved a design that may provide both a power generation and waste management option for deployed military sites as well as disaster relief.
• We need to be good neighbours: International examples of energy from waste facilities sited within busy cities such as Paris were presented as proof that energy from waste and heavily populated areas can exist in harmony. There are projects underway in Australia which demonstrate the same visual and social objectives.
• Don’t reinvent the wheel: Many of the technology solutions proposed for Australia have already been researched overseas. The focus in Australia should not be on repeating this research but on investigating the ways in which such technologies and strategies can be adapted to Australian conditions.
• Use of biofuels to reduce our transport footprint: Transport of materials for beneficial reuse and reprocessing can increase an operation’s greenhouse gas footprint. The use of biofuels provides industry with the opportunity to reduce that impact, with supply and quality of biofuels continuing to improve.

Dr Patricia Chamberlain is a research analyst at C4ES – a firm which provides services in environmental stewardship; strategic planning and policy development; market development for recycled materials; waste minimisation and avoidance; education and research. The views expressed here are her own and not those of C4ES.