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Showing posts with label Waste to Energy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Waste to Energy. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 22, 2018

A carbon policy thread


Cr Philip Penfold blocks advisor - too much advice
Cr Philip Penfold blocks advisor - too much advice

Maitland City Council

ORDINARY MEETING AGENDA 10 JULY 2012

17.2 REDUCTION OF METHANE GAS AT MT VINCENT WASTE SITE

NOTICE OF MOTION SUBMITTED BY CLR RAY FAIRWEATHER
File No: P44197
Attachments: Nil
Responsible Officer: David Evans - General Manager

Bernie Mortomore - Executive Manager Planning, Environment and Lifestyle

Clr Ray Fairweather has indicated his intention to move the following Notice of Motion at the next Council Meeting being held on Tuesday 10 July 2012:

THAT

  1. The General Manager provide a report to council on all possible options available to council for the reduction of methane gas at the Mt Vincent Waste Site;
  2. What are those options and if council can implement any of those options to reduce the huge carbon tax cost impost on our ratepayers ($2.2 million dollars in 2012/2013 budget);
  3. The report expand on the possible sale of methane gas to generate power for electricity grid and if such a venture would benefit council financially;
  4. The opportunity if one exists for the calling of tenders for the extraction of methane gas for commercial uses; and
  5. What is involved in the 'burning option' of reducing methane gas and carbon tax payments.

NOTES BY CLR RAY FAIRWEATHER

The $2.2 million cost of the carbon tax is a huge impost on ratepayers (though it is yet to be properly costed) that needs urgent investigation on all options available to reduce those costs and if economically beneficial should be given urgent priority.

RESPONSE BY EXECUTIVE MANAGER PLANNING, ENVIRONMENT AND LIFESTYLE

A reduction of methane gas emissions from any landfill can be made by reducing the quantity of organic matter buried at the site as methane gas generation is a product of decomposition of organic materials that are subject to anaerobic conditions. These conditions are found in a landfill.
In the landfill context if methane is being generated then a landfill gas extraction system can be installed to capture the gas, pass it through a flare to convert it to carbon dioxide and hence reduce the carbon footprint of the site. If there is sufficient and constant gas production the gas can be used to power a generator which will create electricity that can be either exported to the grid or used sacrificially on site.
Alternatively organic waste can be processed in aerobic conditions so that it does not convert the waste to methane. It will generate other gases but because methane is said to be more than 21 times more problematic than carbon dioxide the greenhouse gas outputs are reduced. Aerobic waste processing of total organic waste streams utilises some form of technology to control and manage the processes. Council will recall that a waste technology solution was explored through the HIR partnership prior to the project being abandoned.
Council has a contract in place to install a gas extraction system at the Mt Vincent Rd Waste Facility. This contract with LMS Energy was entered into on the basis that infrastructure costs and ongoing management of the system was borne by LMS Energy in return for the carbon credits generated minus a royalty payment to Council. The contract remains in place and commercial in confidence. The system is to be installed within the next 3 months and gas capture should commence towards the end of the year. At this stage the reduction effect on Council's carbon liability remains unknown. It will however reduce the gas emissions from the site.
Whether there will be sufficient gas generation from the site to generate power will be known once the system is commissioned. Given the system is being retrofitted the efficiencies of the gas capture are difficult to model.
A further detailed report can be provided to Council as required.
Page (270)
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Thursday, July 26, 2018

Consumerism in an ecosystem

Rain forests are centres of great activity that depend on quite small reserves of nutrients.

Plants continuously absorbing sunlight transform water and carbon dioxide into polymers, mainly cellulose, and release oxygen.

On the rain forest floor, a myriad of animals and insect munch their way through fallen leaves and branches, breaking the polymers into water and carbon dioxide. Their waste releases the very small nutrient reserves back into the thin soil layer where they are once again available to the plant community.

Caterpillar eating a leaf
Caterpillar eating a leaf

A productive rain forest ecosystem harboring a great variety of living organisms is a stark contrast to a desert landscape in which far fewer living things eek out a sparse existence.

Human activity might be viewed as damaging and harmful to the environment, and though this is sometime a reasonable observation, it does not have to be.

Consumers supporting producers and discarding obsolete items provide a level of economic activity to engage people and allow their participation in economic and social life.

That discarded items accumulate and are not reprocessed is a problem that can be solved.

Steel and aluminium can be reprocessed more or less indefinitely. Demand for new steel and aluminium eventually declines in economies as the accumulated volume being recycled meets more and more of demand.


Collecting municipal waste, then sorting, recycling and reprocessing at large central plants has been a fairly universal approach for some time. New technology may allow for some waste material to be reprocessed at or near the point of origin, reducing the cost and complexity of large-scale collection and sorting.


Many waste items that are compounds of only carbon, hydrogen and oxygen can be completely decomposed into a gaseous fuel and may be substituted for natural gas in space heaters and hot water systems.

There is no need for waste materials to accumulate and degrade the environment. Creative solutions can be found. Many creative solution exist but simply aren't well known, hence the word "found" rather than "developed".

Energy in the Future


One creative solution that does not exist but may be developed is a business model and technology for virtually unlimited energy at little or no cost.

One possibility is a process to transform materials from one nuclear structure to another that is commercially viable and that generates energy as a byproduct. The energy byproduct can be distributed for a nominal charge.Transforming nuclear waste into safe, naturally occurring and valuable isotopes is a possible additional benefit.

Posted by Askgerbil at 10:11 AM 0 comments
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Thursday, April 5, 2018

Value for investment dollars - Snowy Hydro vs Plasma Gasifiers

The Snowy Hydro 2.0 project is one possible way to store renewable energy.
For each 100 megawatt-hours of electricity stored about 70 megawatt-hours is likely to be generated and delivered to consumers - after allowing for pumping, generation and distribution losses.

If the wholesale price of electricity is $70 per megawatt-hour, each 100 megawatt-hours to storage will cost $7,000. The amount available for delivery - 70 megawatt-hours - will thus cost $100 per megawatt-hour. (That is $7,000 for the 100 megawatt-hours of electricity stored divided by the 70 megawatt-hours delivered to consumers.)

The result is a 40 percent increase in the wholesale price of electricity.
If the purpose is to lower the price of electricity, Snowy Hydro 2.0 project isn't looking too good on this part of the assessment.

The next step is to consider the cost of constructing the scheme, and the need to pay interest to the investors on the amount. This is another problem for the goal of reducing the price of electricity. It is aggravated by the fact that the project lead time means that interest costs accumulate for many years before there is any opportunity to begin recovering those costs from electricity consumers.

Another possible of way of storing renewable energy is to run plasma gasification units with electricity to be stored, converting waste that would otherwise go to landfill into synthesis gas.
Westinghouse Plasma Gasification
Converting Waste Into Clean Energy for a Healthier Planet

These plants are able to deliver over double the amount of energy that is used to operate them.
For each 100 megawatt-hours of electricity costing $7,000 stored in synthesis gas, at least 200 megawatt-hours is available for delivery to consumers - reducing the wholesale price of electricity to $35 per megawatt-hour - a reduction of 50 percent in this stage of the analysis.

Unlike Snowy Hydro 2.0, the assessment of value for investment dollars gets better, not worse, in the next phase. The elimination of waste heading to landfill represents a further cost-saving for investors.

That plasma gasification units can be built quickly means the return on investment begins far sooner than is possible for Snowy Hydro 2.0.

Related post - Efficient renewable energy storage, waste recycling and zero fossil fuels
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Friday, March 23, 2018

Efficient renewable energy storage, waste recycling and zero fossil fuels

Australia's waste industry is in crisis, and it's a warning to the world about China's market power

CHRIS PASH 

China’s sudden ban on the importation of recyclable waste threatens household recycling bin collection in Australia.

The local waste industry is in a mounting crisis and says recycling bin pickup contracts with councils across Australia face default without urgent action by state and federal governments.

No matter how complex a problem is, the solution may be surprisingly simple.

One solution to tackle the above "crisis" fixes 3 further seemingly difficult issues:
  1. Cheap storage of renewable energy for 24/7 reliability.  
  2. Boost natural gas supply and bankrupt the CSG industry. 
  3. Establish beyond doubt that coal power plants are obsolete.
For every 100 kWh of renewable energy stored in a battery, between 80 - 95 kWh is returned when the battery is discharged. Using the same 100 kWh of renewable energy in a plasma gasifier to convert waste to gas returns at least 200 kWh. It's cheaper than a battery and returns more than double the energy when needed.

Plasma gasification converts carbon-containing substances to gas using electricity to produce an extremely hot plasma to decompose complex molecules. Renewable energy can be stored by using it to create gas from waste in a plasma gasification plant.

Westinghouse Plasma Gasification
Converting Waste Into Clean Energy for a Healthier Planet

See these examples:
  1. "After many years of development with our Japanese partners. Global Green International's (GGI’s) New Project: Coal to Electricity with Microwave Steam Torch Plasma is now ready for release."
  2. Westinghouse Plasma Gasification technology is already at work in several facilities around the world to produce electricity from more than 40 different waste streams—including municipal solid waste, commercial waste and industrial waste.

Victorian brown coal is very cheap and the mine for Hazelwood is available. Re-allocating it to energy storage avoids new mine development. Because this brown coal is about 60% water, a lot of energy could go to waste converting this water into nothing but water vapour.

Waste plastic that is a new and mounting 'crisis' consists of carbon and hydrogen polymers but NO WATER.
Polyethylene is a polymer made of carbon and hydrogen atoms

Gasifying a mixture of wet brown coal and waste plastic in the right proportion so all the water reacts with decomposed plastic to form syngas avoids wasting energy in the process.

India has absolutely NO NEED for Queensland's Adani Carmichael coal mine. Gas power generation is far more efficient, cheaper and cleaner than coal fired power plants. It is also evolving more rapidly than coal power plants.

The required technology already exists.

Brown coal gasification and a thirty year mental block

Brown coal is wet
Brown coal is wet

Brown coal researchers have been stuck with a "dry me first" mental block
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Monday, February 12, 2018

Wastewater gone without a trace

Wastewater treatment service business typically make claims  like -
"Our focus is on fit-for-purpose water re-use to ensure that your project delivers on your expectations."
A new business model could make a quite different claim -
"Our focus is on gone-without-a-trace wastewater conversion to renewable fuel."
Integrated biodiesel and biogas production from microalgae
Integrated biodiesel and biogas production from microalgae

Microalgae convert water and carbon dioxide into oxygen and chemical compounds of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen.

Some bacteria convert chemical compounds of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen into methane and carbon dioxide.





The above two processes results in the decomposition of water molecules  and carbon dioxide molecules and their reassembly into methane, oxygen and carbon dioxide molecules. For each 2 water molecules and 2 carbon dioxide molecules entering the process,  1 molecule each of methane, oxygen and carbon dioxide exit.

When 1,000 litres of wastewater are reassembled, the methane produced has an energy content of about 22 gigajoules.

While the value of 'fit-for-purpose" processed wastewater is very low, methane has a wholesale value around $10 per gigajoule and a retail price 2 - 6 times the wholesale value.


Another process uses renewable electricity that is generated when demand is low to produce gas from crop waste, municipal waste, sawdust, etc in a plasma gasifier...




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Friday, May 19, 2017

Renewable natural gas

The Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration Association - "the voice of [one part of] Australia's oil and gas industry" - held its annual conference in Perth recently. The Twitter feed about the conference is under hash tag #APPEA2017

Approaches for increasing the supply of natural gas were on the agenda, but renewable energy production of natural gas didn't get a mention. The absence of Bioenergy Australia which is holding a Bioenergy Business Breakfast in Adelaide next week left the struggling oil and gas industry bereft of a host of ideas to address the intractable problem of rising costs of extracting natural gas. The problem it faces is that there aren't any more low-cost natural gas reserves to exploit.

New methods for producing natural gas from renewable energy are being developed and refined, continually lowering costs and improving efficiency.

At the same time:
  1. The cost of extracting coal seam gas is constantly increasing.
    Unconventional gas production involves significantly higher capital expenditure
  2. The domestic price of natural is continuing to rise.
    The wholesale price of natural gas in Australia has risen steeply
    The wholesale price of natural gas in Australia has risen steeply
These factors are making it more commercially attractive to produce natural gas from renewable energy. 

There are 3 underlying processes for making renewable natural gas no matter how the various technologies achieve them:
  1. Carbon dioxide can be converted into carbon-containing compounds and oxygen by algae and other plants using sunlight to drive photosynthesis.
     
  2. Carbon dioxide can also be converted into natural gas and water using hydrogen produced from electrolysis of water using electricity from renewable energy generation. Oxygen is produced as a by-product as in the first process.
     
  3. Any carbon-containing compounds including those produced by algae and plants in the first process described above along with farm waste and municipal waste, can be converted into a mixture of methane and carbon dioxide. About half the carbon in the input feed stock is converted into methane, and the other half into carbon dioxide. After the carbon dioxide produced as a by-product is separated, it can be converted into methane by recycling it into either of the first two processes. No "carbon capture and storage" required, avoiding a susbstantial cost of using natural gas from fossil fuel reserves.
     
    • Long established technologies use methane-producing bacteria that create methane and carbon dioxide in anaerobic fermentation ponds or tanks.
    • More recently plants have become available that use supercritical water as a gasification medium to create methane and carbon dioxide. These complete the gasification process more quickly and so don't need large tanks where methane-producing bacteria gradually transform the feed stock. This newer technology is especially well-suited for wet feed stock as there is no need to dry it.

These more recent technologies can also efficiently convert low-grade coal with high moisture content into natural gas. Existing coal-fired power could use this option to improve efficiency and lower emissions until it is feasible to decommission them.

Researchers at ENN Group, China and Carleton University, Canada recently investigated supercritical water lignite gasification technology. See "Coal-based Clean Energy Production", Advances in Energy Engineering (AEE) Volume 1 Issue 4, October 2013.

Supercritical Water gasification of wet biomass and low-grade coal
Supercritical Water gasification of wet biomass and low-grade coal


More recently the Lappeenranta University of Technology, Finland, completed an assessment of the option of Australia becoming a major exporter of renewable energy to Asia - making use of the Queensland LNG export facilities - to ship natural gas made with renewable energy. See "Can Australia Power the Energy-Hungry Asia with Renewable Energy?"
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Thursday, May 4, 2017

Commercial viability of coal seam gas

Australian coal seam gas is expensive to extract: about $4 to $5 a gigajoule. 
Rising cost of extracting coal seam gas
Rising cost of extracting coal seam gas
 The U.S. wholesale gas price is only $3 a gigajoule.
U.S. natural gas price
U.S. natural gas price
One option for increasing the natural gas supply in Australia, though it isn't the preferred option, is to import LNG from the U.S. 
The point to take away from this is that coal seam gas in Australia, facing competition from the U.S. that is rapidly expanding its LNG export capacity, is unlikely to be commercially viable within a few years. 
Expanding the unconventional gas industry that  has little prospect of long-term commercial viability isn't a good investment.
Another option for increasing the supply of natural gas is to make it from coal. Black coal in Australia is being sold into an over-supplied export market where the price is falling to around $2 a gigajoule.
Brown coal costs only about 50 cents a gigajoule.
 
New processes are available that can make methane from coal relatively cleanly. 
Supercritical Water (SCW) gasification of coal and wet biomass
Supercritical Water (SCW) gasification of coal and wet biomass

 Coal mixed with water and heated to 400 centigrade with solar thermal energy reacts to form approximately equal quantities of carbon dioxide and natural gas. 
Another way to heat the mixture is to add hydrogen produced by wind turbines or solar PV systems. With sufficient hydrogen, all of the carbon in the mixture reacts with the hydrogen to form natural gas and no carbon dioxide is created.
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Thursday, July 16, 2015

Wind turbines complement coal, natural gas and liquid fuels

New German technology converts 2 gigawatt-hours of off-peak electricity from wind turbines into hydrogen in its first year of operation. (See E.ON Wind Energy Gas Storage GmbH)

For private households the “Wind-to-Hydrogen” product can be obtained as a mix of 90 % natural gas and 10 % regenerative hydrogen.

This technology competes with battery energy storage. The commercial value of hydrogen and oxygen from off-peak wind energy has to be weighed up by investors against the cost of storing this off-peak energy in batteries for resale at a higher price during peak periods.
Wind farm energy to hydrogen and oxygen
Wind energy to hydrogen and oxygen

There are opportunities to expand the market for hydrogen and oxygen from low-cost off-peak electricity generated by wind farms:
  • Oil refineries consume a vast amount of hydrogen to produce transport fuels. At present refineries use natural gas to make hydrogen.
  • Oxygen from wind turbine electrolysis units can cut the reliance on air separation plants making oxygen for use in coal gasification. (The process of gasifying coal and municipal or crop waste with pure oxygen also lowers the cost of separating carbon dioxide - itself a valuable product in the emerging algae-oil industry and traditional markets such as fertiliser manufacture.)

The Purox process was developed by Union Carbide in the early 1970's

Air may be cheap but from a thermal-efficiency perspective it's expensive because only one fifth of air is oxygen with nitrogen forming the remaining four fifths. Gasifiers that use air as the oxidizing gas have to heat up five times as much air than one using pure oxygen as the oxidizer and separating carbon dioxide from large volumes of nitrogen is an expensive process.

In the mid-1970's pure oxygen was produced by the fractional distillation of liquid air, a process which is energy intensive and technologically challenging.

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Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Carbon tax innovation saves jobs and boosts profits

Oakey Abattoir, located on Queensland’s Darling Downs, has launched an initiative to extract green energy biogas from its wastewater streams with a covered anaerobic lagoon.

Energy generated by the anaerobic digestion plant will replace the millions of dollars worth of natural gas currently consumed by the abattoir.

Tony Abbott fights fires

This is the first time the proven technology has been applied to a covered lagoon, an application where it has enormous further potential in countries with strong agribusiness sectors.

According to Oakey Abattoir General Manager Pat Gleeson, once the plant has repaid its cost of construction through gas purchase savings (expected to take less than five years), it will then continue to deliver benefits and profitability far into the future. It was installed by environmental engineering and green energy firm CST Wastewater Solutions.

The Oakey plant will feature re-use of the biogas in its boilers, where it is initially expected to replace usage of about 50,000 gigajoules of natural gas each year.

“Yet another outstanding benefit is that anaerobic digestion produces reliable and predictable base-load power - unlike some other green-energy technologies, it is not dependent on the wind blowing or the sun shining,” said CST Wastewater Solutions’ Managing Director Michael Bambridge.

“The environmental and cost benefits of COHRAL technology as deployed by Oakey Abattoir are outstanding and something we expect to attract world attention for agribusiness, including meat, dairy and crop waste processing.”

Further reading -

Greg Hunt hides carbon tax driven innovation
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Saturday, June 7, 2014

Greg Hunt hides carbon tax driven innovation

In a relentlessly negative campaign against putting a price on carbon, Tony Abbott the then leader of the opposition visited Austral Bricks in September 2011.
Austral Bricks managing director Lindsay Partridge said the Brickworks had reduced carbon emissions by 40 per cent in the past decade, but the introduction of the carbon tax would cost his company $12.8 million a year. 
“This is one of the many businesses in one of the many industries which is going to be badly hit by the Prime Minister’s toxic tax,” Mr Abbott said. “The thing about the carbon tax is that it’s going to be very tough for Australian families, it’s going to be particularly tough for Australian homebuyers.” 

Shortly after, Gerbilnow contacted Austral Bricks and suggested it assess renewable energy for firing its brick kilns. The use of waste timber in a gasifier for this process has two commercial benefits. 
  1. The cost of fuel was substantially lower than natural gas.
  2. No carbon tax was payable.

The carbon tax is an incentive to adopt such innovations. In particular it is an incentive to switch from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources. As a result of the switch the cost of new houses may fall as the cost of bricks can be lowered.

Fast forward 2½ years to March 2014.


Greg Hunt visits Austral Bricks that is now making carbon nuetral bricks

Two different descriptions of Austral Bricks' innovation to become the first carbon-neutral brick manufacturer in Australia emerge.

The one by Tony Abbott's Minister for the Environment conceals the facts:
  • that a switch to renewable energy has been made, 
  • that the cost of manufacturing bricks is lower as a result, and 
  • that the carbon tax has served as an incentive for positive outcomes for both the environment and the economy.

The real description:

Sawdust for fuel now fires Australia’s first carbon neutral bricks

13 March 2014 | David Wheeldon | Architecture & Design

Austral Brick’s national energy and sustainability manager Steven Mouzakis said the use of low emissions biomass as opposed to fossil fuels is largely responsible for the plant’s low carbon dioxide emissions.

“Emissions from the biomass are just 215 tonnes per year, about the same as 12 average Australian households,” he said.

“In contrast, a conventional natural gas kiln of the same capacity could emit approximately 8,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases.”

The false and deceitful description by Greg Hunt, the Minister for the Environment in the Abbott Government:

Austral bricks goes carbon neutral

17 March 2014 | The Hon. Greg Hunt MP, Minister for the Environment | Media release

Congratulations to Austral Bricks on becoming a leader in their field.

For businesses, being carbon neutral means looking carefully for ways to reduce energy emissions, which makes good business sense as well as being good for the environment.

Austral Bricks has ...found innovative ways of reducing these emissions.

These include switching some of its kiln operations from coal to gas, as well as improving the energy efficiency of their lighting. ...

Steven Mouzakis, National Energy and Sustainability Manager of Brickworks Building Products, which produces Austral Bricks, said the company is delighted to have achieved a carbon neutral footprint for its range of brick and paver products manufactured at the Longford facility.

Further reading -


Save $12.8 million a year

Carbon tax innovation saves jobs and boosts profits
Posted by Askgerbil at 12:51 PM 0 comments
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Sunday, March 9, 2014

Improve water quality of inland waterways and generate income

Water quality and sources of pollution - Eutrophication and algal blooms

(Source: Australian Government - Department of the Environment)
Eutrophication occurs when the major plant nutrients - nitrogen and phosphorus - accumulate in water (or sediments). Given the right conditions, elevated concentrations of nutrients stimulate the growth of aquatic flora to nuisance levels. Examples include microscopic algae in the water column which may result in algal blooms...

Algal blooms are a natural occurrence, however, due to human activities (such as land clearing, destruction of riparian vegetation, water extraction, decreased flow and flow variability associated with weirs and dams, discharge of sewage and intensive agriculture), higher quantities of nitrogen and phosphorus have been reaching inland waters. Periods of low or no flow in many rivers have also increased due to high water extraction and river regulation. The combination of high nutrient levels and long periods of low or no flow provide ideal conditions for algal blooms to develop.

Blue-green algal blooms are of most concern in inland waters as certain species produce toxins that may cause skin irritations, gastrointestinal disorders, influenza-like symptoms and, in extreme cases, permanent organ damage and death (ANZECC/AWRC 1992). Many of the toxins produced by blue-green algae can affect people, livestock, birds and fish. ...

For human uses, blue-green algal blooms in drinking water resources is the most serious issue. Traditional water treatment methods are unable to remove the algal toxins from algae-contaminated water, while other alternative water treatment methods are expensive. Blue-green algal blooms may affect the recreational use of a waterway by decreasing its aesthetic amenity and posing a health risk to individuals who have direct contact with the algae.

"A $40 a tonne increase in the US in December has led Australian farmers paying up to $200 a tonne more for the fertiliser diammonium phosphate (DAP)."
Point sources of nitrogen and phosphorus include sewage treatment plants, intensive agriculture (such as cattle feedlots and piggeries) and industry. Although in most river systems, point sources only contribute to 5% to 35% of the total amount of nutrients entering the waterway (Environment Australia 1996; NPI 2000), their impact can be proportionally greater.

Point-source discharges are usually continuous and often contain high levels of nitrate and phosphate, forms of nitrogen and phosphorus that can be readily used by algae.

In dry weather, diffuse source nutrient pollution is generally low and point sources are the largest source of nutrients. The greater stability of the water column in dry weather is generally more favourable to the development of algal blooms (SKM 2001) and there is also less flow in river systems to dilute point-source discharges.

Although there is information on the quantity of nutrients discharged from sewage treatment plants (NPI 2000), there is no comprehensive information on other point sources. ... The contribution to nutrient loads from intensive livestock enterprises is potentially considerable as these facilities are widespread, often poorly regulated and generate wastes that are high in nutrients (e.g. manure).

Figures 13 and 14 show the quantities of phosphorus and nitrogen discharged to inland waters by sewage treatment plants each year. As New South Wales has the highest inland population, its sewage treatment plants also discharge the highest quantity of nutrients. The four river systems that receive the highest loads of nitrogen (greater than 100 tonnes per year) and phosphorus (greater than 30 tonnes per year) from sewage treatment plants are the Murrumbidgee, Hawkesbury-Nepean, Namoi and Hunter.

Tonnes of phosphorus discharged by inland sewage treatment plants each year.
Figure 13: Tonnes of phosphorus discharged by inland sewage treatment plants each year.
Source: Data for New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and Tasmania were obtained from licensing databases supplied by state regulatory agencies. Data for Northern Territory, Western Australia, Australian Capital Territory and South Australia were obtained from the National Pollutant Inventory 2000.


Tonnes of nitrogen discharged by inland sewage treatment plants each year.
Figure 14: Tonnes of nitrogen discharged by inland sewage treatment plants each year.
Source: Data for New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and Tasmania were obtained from licensing databases supplied by state regulatory agencies. Data for Northern Territory, Western Australia, Australian Capital Territory and South Australia were obtained from the National Pollutant Inventory 2000.

Struvite (magnesium ammonium phosphate) Recovery

"Ostara’s Pearl® technology created at the University of British Columbia recovers ammonia and phosphate from nutrient rich fluids."
Ostara’s proprietary wastewater treatment technology, called the Pearl® Nutrient Recovery Process, recovers phosphorus and other nutrients from sludge liquids preventing the buildup of struvite scale in plant infrastructure and converting the recovered nutrients into a premium commercial fertilizer (Crystal Green®)

The pellets are then harvested from the reactor and formulated to become Crystal Green®, a high-quality environmentally friendly, slow-release, commercial fertilizer that provides revenue for the system’s operator.

Ostara’s Pearl® technology is based on a proprietary fluidized bed reactor that recovers ammonia and phosphate from nutrient rich fluids. The technology, created at the University of British Columbia, uses a proprietary fluidized bed reactor design which removes approximately 85% of the influent phosphorus, but also results in the formation of a fertilizer in granular form consistent with that used in the fertilizer industry.
(Read more ...)

Incitec Pivot Phosphorus Fertilisers

Ammonia moleculeAmmonia Molecule
DAP (Diammonium Phosphate) is manufactured by reacting ammonia with phosphoric acid. Because it has a high nitrogen and phosphorus content, DAP allows savings to be made in storage, freight and application. It is a very economical nitrogen and phosphorus fertiliser and is widely used throughout the world. In Australia, DAP is used in cropping and on grass pastures, both on its own and in blends, e.g. for sugarcane and horticulture.

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Thursday, January 9, 2014

Combining Technologies to Cut Energy Costs

CSIRO's solar air turbine meets BTOLA's indirectly-fired gas turbine

The CSIRO solar air turbine may be adapted to operate as BTOLA's indirectly-fired gas turbine - powered by either solar thermal energy or any combination of renewable biofuel or fossil fuel.



The result is a solar thermal power station that can generate electricity 24 hours a day, 7 days a week - on sunny days and cloudy days. The cost of solar thermal storage is avoided.

The BTOLA power generation system has reduced fuel-costs because the solar thermal heliostat field generates electricity from solar energy during sunny periods.

The capital cost of the integrated system is less than building 2 separate systems: the gas turbine and electricity generator are shared.

An indirectly-fired gas turbine used in a combined-cycle has slightly lower efficiency than a conventional combined-cycle gas turbine power station, but has lower maintenance costs as its turbine blades are not exposed to any combustion gases.

This approach complements the work CSIRO and GE are conducting with SolarGas power generation. In that approach, solar thermal energy is combined into the chemical bonds of biogas and/or fossil fuels.

This alternate approach leaves the different energy sources and fuels unchanged, and then uses them in any combination in an innovative power station design.

Both of these approaches overcome complaints that renewable energy sources are unreliable.

There is also a growing awareness that as the number of solar panels grows, the cost to consumers of an electricity grid and central power stations also grows as these energy resources are pushed to the margins in providing backup capacity on cloudy days.

The approach adopted by GE and CSIRO  with SolarGas, and the approach described here - avoid this problem. No "stranded assets" are created. The same power generation infrastructure can be used with any combination of renewable and fossil fuels. A transition from reliance on fossil fuels to renewable energy need not be expensive or difficult.

Australia's largest solar thermal research hub

CSIRO has designed and built Australia's largest solar thermal research facility which consists of a 30 metre high solar tower (the tallest in Australia) and high temperature receiver, and a 4000 square metre field of 450 heliostats. The facility is capable of concentrating solar energy at temperatures beyond 1000 ºC.

CSIRO will use the facility to develop and test one of the world’s most powerful solar air turbines to generate electricity from air and sunshine alone (almost all current systems require water as well as fossil fuel).

This 200 kiloWatt solar air turbine generates electricity which is then fed into the grid.

The pilot site covers an area of 4000 square metres and although this site is being used for research, a site of this size could generate enough electricity to power nearly 200 homes.

BTOLA Indirectly fired gas turbine technology


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Technology Overview
BTOLA converts existing proven gas turbines to indirectly fired gas turbine engines allowing them to run on Biomass, waste products and other fuels lowering fuel costs and greenhouse gas emissions.

This is accomplished by

  • Removing existing combustion chamber
  • Installing BTOLA combustion chamber
  • Installing BTOLA start-up combustor
  • Installing BTOLA heat exchangers
  • Utilizing BTOLA heat recovery
  • Installing BTOLA control system


Cleaner Fuel Options
The gas turbine has been tested and achieved excellent results with these alternative fuels.




Why ?
Because the BTOLA solution is up to 70% cheaper to purchase, install and operate.
Capital Cost – Purchase and Installation costs over competing technology to utilize cheaper fuels

BTOLA IFGT $2 - $3 / Watt
Gasification and turbine or IC engine      $7 / Watt
Boiler and steam turbine $6 / Watt


Operating Costs
Regular Gas Turbine Fuels           BTOLA IFGT Fuels
Kerosene $25 / GJ Waste Biomass $ -2 - $0 / GJ (disposal cost avoidance)
Diesel $30 / GJ Energy crop Biomass      $2 / GJ
Natural Gas      $7 / GJ Coal $10 - $20 / GJ
LPG $20 / GJ      Municipal Waste $ -2 / GJ (disposal cost avoidance)

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Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Aussie farmers and coal miners take on gas

If CSG is made uneconomic by a lower-cost gas supplier it won't happen

Farmers and coal miners have the opportunity to profit in three ways from the doubling of natural gas prices expected to arrive by 2015 (SANTOS is confident Australia's east coast gas prices will rise to two or three times current prices). Failing to take this opportunity means accepting a double blow to profits with this doubling of energy costs and a steep rises in fertiliser prices.

A preview of the impact of natural gas prices was reported by ABC Rural - after extreme cold weather in the U.S. pushed natural gas prices to a five-year high:
"A $40 a tonne increase in the US in December has led Australian farmers paying up to $200 a tonne more for DAP. [diammonium phosphate (DAP). Natural gas is a major feedstock in ammonia production.]" (Read more ...)

Methane produced from crop residues, coal and coal waste - at a price below coal seam gas - means:
  • More revenue for farmers and more jobs for coal miners.
  • Cheaper fertiliser at stable prices for farmers by selling methane to fertiliser manufacturers.
  • No coal seam gas wells. 
First biogas upgrading plant in the UK to be equipped with Pentair Haffmans’ technology
Pentair Haffmans’ biogas upgrading technology according to the company outperforms conventional techniques by providing two additional advantages. Biogas primarily consists of a mixture of methane and CO2. The technique used makes it possible to recover 100 % of the methane, thus eliminating the environmentally harmful ‘methane slip’. In addition, the CO2 by-product is recovered for use in a variety of applications, including greenhouse growing.
Use these three steps:
  • Convert crop residues and coal into a methane and carbon dioxide mixture.
  • Separate the methane and sell it as synthetic natural gas to fertiliser manufacturers and LNG exporters.
  • Sell the remaining carbon dioxide to algae farms to produce edible oil, bio-diesel and livestock feed. Researchers feeding marine algae to lambs have increased the level of healthy omega-3 fatty acids in their meat by almost three times. (Read more ...)

Source: Science creates possibilities - farming energy and food

It should be a crime to have CSG on this land

FARMERS have declared they are ready for war as the CSG industry eyes their land for mining.

A meeting of 500 landowners and protesters yesterday issued a message of defiance to Arrow Energy, which is seeking approval to sink gas wells at Cecil Plains on the Darling Downs.

A large part of Arrow's gas lies under the best cereal and cotton farming land in Queensland.

Source: Arrow takes aim at Darling Downs farmers for coal seam gas mining

The coal sector has its troubles - thin margins, job losses

Falling commodity prices and rising operating costs is wreaking havoc on Australia’s coal sector with one industry association saying over 9000 jobs have gone in the last 15 months.

The lower-priced thermal coal is selling at about $US87 a tonne and according to a Wood Mackenzie report more than 40 of the 71 thermal mines surveyed had cash operating costs above this level. Painting an even bleaker picture, some traders have reported recent thermal coal sales as low as $US72 a tonne.

Source: Thin margins, job losses: Coal sector troubles

Concerns mounting over soaring gas prices and a looming domestic supply shortage.

The Government Minister for Resources Mr Gray's position was echoed by his opposition counterpart Ian Macfarlane, who said any move to mandatory domestic gas reservation would be a "bad signal to investment in Australia" and would not resolve the issue.

Natural gas was essential to farming, making up 15 to 40 per cent of the cost base of common products like fertiliser.

Source: Canberra to probe domestic gas market

Fertiliser manufacturer Incitec Pivot that uses huge amounts of gas is livid

Coal seam gas (CSG) would go for export as liquefied natural gas (LNG), shipped out of Gladstone to Asian markets. LNG plants producing millions of tonnes per annum are hungry beasts – nowhere else in the world had they been hooked up to thousands of CSG wells. 20,000-30,000 wells are to be drilled across the Darling Downs over the next two decades.

Domestic gas prices on the east coast are expected to double by around 2015, as they reach ‘export parity’. In simple terms, for the first time Australian gas users – commercial and residential – in the eastern states are competing for gas with energy-hungry Asian nations like Japan, Korea and China.

Source: Campbell Newman and his flying pig economics

Posted by Gerbilnow at 2:38 AM 0 comments
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