How can something that is considered mainstream environmental practice in Europe be so poorly deployed here?
Like many others in the environmental management profession I have banged my head on walls over that question many times, however, it wasn’t until my recent appointment as CEO Spectrum Renewable Energy (Australasia) Pty Ltd, that I really grasped the full extent of this gap and could see so clearly an opportunity to fill at least part of it quickly, safely and affordably.
“Biogas technology” is a generic term for the technologies associated with the anaerobic digestion of organic wastes (food waste, animal waste sewage etc) to produce methane gas and an organic sludge (a recyclable by product). Biogas technology is widely acknowledged as the best way to treat wet organic waste however, it has not been widely deployed in Australia.
Biogas is widely deployed in India and China with millions of small scale plants treating waste in communities and generating gas for cooking and fertiliser for growing crops. Large industrial scale plants are less common in these geographies although our major investor Spectrum Renewable Energy Ltd has just started construction of a plant for an agricultural cooperative to treat 100t per day of sugar mill mud and dairy manure using upgraded biogas, 'bioCNG', to replace natural gas in the client’s truck fleet.
Germany has more than 4000 agricultural based biogas plants alone, it is also a requirement for all sewage treatment facilities to capture and use methane from anaerobic digestion and as such there are more than 1000 biogas units installed for this purpose.
Biogas is playing an increasingly important part of the energy mix in Sweden. The long-term potential for biogas in Sweden has been estimated at 70,000 GWh per year, which is enough to power all of the country‘s gas-powered vehicles.
There are a handful of local biogas success stories including Berrybank Piggery in Victoria which installed a biogas plant in 1989. The system generates electricity from biogas, conserves and recycles water and sells the plant sludge as fertiliser. The plant cost $2m, paid back in 6 years and continues to generate $435,000 per year in benefits for its owners.
There have been several important reviews of the technology carried out in Australia by the Business Council for Sustainable Energy, NSW Sustainable Energy Development Authority(SEDA) Clean Energy Council and the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation, these have all concluded that the low cost of fossil fuel based energy in Australia has, in the past made it difficult for these technologies to compete.
We think the landscape is now changing dramatically in all 6 areas where biogas technology can provide practical, well proven, affordable solutions:
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reducing the costs and risks of carbon emissions
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meeting increased demand for reliable, continuous locally generated renewable energy
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reducing waste costs and risks
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improving waste water reuse
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improving water quality
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supporting a mainstream shift to less chemical intensive farming methods
Biogas technology when applied by experienced specialist engineers presents few issues with technical risks controlled by good design, quality assurance and project management.
The environmental credentials of well engineered biogas technologies are well documented.
In addition to tough competition from cheap fossil fuels we feel biogas technologies have not been well deployed here for practical reasons in that food processing plant operators, sewage treatment plant operators, animal processing or intensive livestock farmers struggle to see themselves as “power plant” operators. For this reason Spectrum is offering the first complete end to end biogas technology solution in Australia including bringing together all the necessary partners, providing upstream and downstream technology integration and project financing while managing all aspects of design, construction and operation.
Surely this one area where we can stop banging our heads against the wall and quickly, safely and affordably close the gap on our environmental management counterparts in Europe.
You may have seen our write up in Environmental Health Australia’s “EHA Year Book 2009” here is a link to the electronic version you will find us on page 69.
