ballina pyrolysis project flyer

7/29/2019 Ballina Pyrolysis Project Flyer

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Ballina PyrolysisDemonstration Project

April 2010


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Direct outcomes to be delivered include: Climate Change mitigation and adaptation;

reducing landll GHG emissions, sequesteringcarbon, offsetting fossil fuel use, contributingto the renewable energy target, assistingagriculture to adapt.

Creating regional employment. Improved resource recovery

from waste organics. Reducing waste to landll. Generating local renewable

electricity in an area with

stretched grid capacity. Contributing to local

government emissionsreductions targets.

Nutrient cycling from urbancentres back to agriculture.

Decreasing agricultural inputssuch as synthetic fertilisers.

In-direct outcomes which allow the project to becondently replicated for the benet of localgovernments, industry and farmers, include:

Demonstration of pyrolysis technology at acommercial scale.

Demonstration of the project business case;including revenues from biochar sales,renewable energy from waste, and carbonoffsets.

Commercial biochar supply will enable largescale research and development eld trials to be established.

The greenhouse gas mitigation potential of biochar technology has only beendemonstrated on a pilot scale. Large scale biochar production will enable scienticverication of these benets.

Project Objectives:The key objective of the project is to demonstrate the technical and economic feasibility of commercialscale processing of waste organics to energy and biochar via an innovative, Australian developed,pyrolysis technology.

Tackle Climate Change Develop a clean energy future Improve air quality Reduce Waste Maintain and invest in infrastructure

Increase business investment and support jobs

Drive innovation and grow productivity Ensure a reliable electricity supply

NSW State Plan 2010 Priorities and Targets, to be directly addressed by this project:


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Business Case Overview:Estimated Project Capital Cost: $8.5 millionProject Development Cost: $1 million

Revenue Streams: Waste service charge (avoidance of State Waste

Levy and future CPRS liability on landll).

Electricity sales. Renewable Energy Certicates (RECs). Biochar sales. Carbon offsets (via the voluntary National

Offset Standard).

Operating Costs: Staff. Feedstock pre-treatment. Plant maintenance and operation. Ancillary services (electricity, gas). Management, administration and regulatory

requirements.

BSC and potential commercial partners (includingnancial institutions) have reviewed the business caseand consider the technology to provide competitiveeconomic outcomes compared with alternatives,especially when considering the additionalenvironmental and social benets.Policy uncertainty surrounding carbon offset and RECprices presents a challenge to project nancialmodelling. The risks associated with implementing a

rst-of-kind plant at a commercial scale could lead to adelay in project implementation. This risk thresholdcould be decreased to an acceptable level however if grant funding could be attributed to cover a portion of the capital costs of the project, and/or to provide off takes for project products such as RECs, biochar andcarbon offsets.

Project Development Background:A collaboration was established between the NSWDepartment of Industry and Investment (NSW DII,formerly NSW DPI), the NSW Department of Stateand Regional Development (DSRD), and Ballina ShireCouncil (BSC) to investigate the feasibility of establishing a pyrolysis demonstration facility in

North East NSW. The drivers for the work included;regional development, organics waste management,enhanced agriculture productivity, biochar production,renewable energy production, and greenhouse gasmitigation objectives.

Pacic Pyrolysis (PacPyro) Pty Limited (formerlyBEST Energies Australia) responded to theconsultation brief and was contracted as thecollaborative technical partner for the project. PacPyrohad previously collaborated with NSW DPI on anextensive biochar research program which attracted amajor funding contribution from the NSWDepartment of Environment and Climate Change(DECC). The ndings of this work showed thepotential for agronomic benets and greenhouse gasmitigation from biochar addition to soil. Thefoundation provided by this early work enabledfurther funding from several other state and federalgovernment departments for additional biocharresearch and development that supportscommercialisation of the technology.

A project feasibility study has found a business case exists for the application of apyrolysis plant project at the Ballina landll site. BSC and PacPyro have continued to collaborate on development of the pyrolysis project and are currently seekingsupport so that the project can be implemented in a timely fashion to achieve the greatest possible benet for theNorthern Rivers, NSW and Australia.

Project Annual Capacity:Renewable Energy 6,000 MWh

Biochar 7,000 tonnes

Waste Diverted 29,000 tonnes

Emissions avoided 48,000 t CO -e


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Biochar Research:The NSW DII Wollongbaragricultural institute has beenconducting eld trials on biochar inthe Northern NSW region since 2006.The results of these trials have beenvery encouraging and local landmanagers are keen to apply the newunderstanding in their commercialoperations. Please refer to the peerreviewed scientic publications on the local trialsfor more information.

Through various State and Federal researchgrants, biochar research in Australia is beginningto gain momentum. For more information seethe projects page of the ANZ biocharresearchers network website. This research has been enabled by the ability of researchinstitutions to gain access to the PacPyropyrolysis pilot plant, which was built with thesupport of the NSW DECC, for the production of

biochar. However, the small scale of this pilotfacility greatly limits the size and quantity of in-eld trials possible due to the high operatingcosts. Commercial scale biochar production willallow the expansion of scientic trials forverication and product development.

Project Technical Outline:The project is designed to achieveoptimised economic andenvironmental outcomes throughthe conversion of organic waste,which is currently managed on theBSC landll site, to electricity and

biochar. The pyrolysis technologyutilised is a thermal conversionprocess which has beendemonstrated on a 1/10 th pilotscale (see www.pacpyro.com formore information). Several levelsof technical feasibility assessmentshave been conducted on theproject including site andfeedstock specic investigations.

For further information please contactAdriana Downie ,

Pacic Pyrolysis. 56 Gindurra Road,Somersby, NSW 2250. +61 2 4340 4911

www.pacicpyrolysis.com

"Adding biochar to soil notonly provides an economicalway to sequester carbon, butalso has soil health benets

which will help farmers adaptto climate variability andincrease productivity."

NSW Minister for State andRegional Development,

Ian MacDonald

We are very grateful for the support of BSC, NSW DPI, DSRD,PacPyro, and DECC during the development of this project.

For further information please contact John Truman ,

Ballina Shire Council. PO Box 450,Ballina, NSW 2478. +61 2 6686 4444

www.ballina.nsw.gov.au
http://www.ballina.nsw.gov.au/http://www.ballina.nsw.gov.au/http://www.pacificpyrolysis.com/http://www.pacificpyrolysis.com/http://www.pacpyro.com/http://www.pacpyro.com/

ballina pyrolysis project flyer

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