Waste has previously had a negative value because it costs money, time and effort to remove, store and destruct. However this thinking is set to change as waste becomes a commodity used for energy generation.

The WSN Ecolibrium mixed waste facility at the almost completed Macarthur Resource Recovery Park in Narellan, New South Wales, will consume household waste and produce clean energy.

The new process facility is the first of its kind in Australasia and second only in the world to the plant it has been modelled on in Israel. It is designed to process over 100,000 tonnes of household rubbish per year, diverting approximately 70 per cent away from landfill sites.

The facility will automatically sort and separate the waste into its respective groups, such as glass, paper, aluminium, steel and plastic bags, which can then be cleaned, processed and packaged, and exported for sale as a recyclable material for new products.

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The facility incorporates some simple yet world class technologies; from blowers used to remove plastic bags to an ozone odour reducing treatment. This treatment – a powerful germicide that destroys most airborne bacteria – is injected into the main process building ventilation ducting to minimise odour prior to the air being expelled to the atmosphere. Another simple but innovative idea is the installation of fast operating access doors. This ensures ‘open door’ time is minimised, which helps to contain the odour from escaping to nearby local communities.

Once the recyclable material has been removed, the remaining waste is transferred into huge 1 to 3 million litre digestion tanks and broken down underwater using a process called anaerobic digestion. This method uses bacteria to break down the waste which produces a methane-based biogas. This biogas, after passing through the Haase gas conditioning equipment, will then be used to power two 1.4 megawatt electric GE Jenbacher reciprocating engines.

The engines and Haase equipment will be installed, commissioned and tested by Clarke Energy, and will create enough electricity to supply 2,500 homes. The electricity will be consumed on site with any excess exported to the grid. The engines are part of a cogeneration system that will not only utilise the generated electricity, but also the heat. This heat will keep the water inside the digestion tanks at a constant temperature, thereby assisting the anaerobic digestion process and increasing gas production.

This Ecolibrium facility and others like it will, in future, change people’s perception of household waste hopefully giving it a value which, in turn, will help create a more enthusiastic, recyclable conscious public