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Category: Recycling and Waste Management / Environmental Technology / Environmentally Sustainable Business / Environment / Environmental Impact / Climate Change / Alternative Energy

Plastic-to-fuel facility planned for Canberra

Monday, 12 Sep 2016 10:12:25 | Penny Travers

Rubbish tip, generic, tractor, rubbish, Canberra, act (ABC News)

A facility that converts non-recyclable plastics into liquid fuel is being planned for Canberra.

The proposed facility would be built in the industrial estate of Hume and divert 200 tonnes of plastic from landfill each day.

"It breaks plastics down into a sludge and converts it into road-ready diesel and petrol," FOY Group managing director Stuart Clark said.

"Plastics originally come from oil in the first place so it's really just reversing it — chemically it's not a major change."

Australians consume more than 1.5 million tonnes of plastic each year, with much of that ending up in waterways.

"This is a big solution to a worldwide problem that no-one has been able to crack for many years," Mr Clark said.

"In time to come this will be a great Australian success story."

How does it work?

The facility would be the first of its kind, using new Australian-patented technology to take the processing a step further than overseas facilities.

Plastic-to-fuel facility Photo: Each tonne of plastic would convert to 1,062 litres of road-ready fuel. (Supplied: FOY Group)

"Overseas technology exists ... but those technologies take it back to a crude oil," technical director Bevan Dooley said.

"But with our process, the plastic goes in one end and, with nothing else coming out in between, out the other end comes diesel and petrol.

"So instead of creating crude oil that then needs to be trucked away and further refined, we take it right through to a finished product.

"The diesel that we make is superior to standard diesel so when you combust the diesel in a truck, for example, it actually has a cleaner emissions profile."

What about noise and emissions?

The site chosen for the facility is across from the Mugga Lane tip and 1.3 kilometres from residents in nearby Gilmore.

During community consultation on August 30, some residents raised concerns about emissions, smells and noise.

But Mr Clark said the closed system meant there would be no fuel odour past the site boundary and that the operation was quiet.

He said fuel would not be stored on site and measures would be in place to contain any potential leakages.

"In terms of emissions into the air, there's more emissions into the air from one household fire place than our whole plant," Mr Clark said.

FOY Group managers Photo: FOY Group's Stuart Clark, Paul Dickson and Bevan Dooley visit the proposed site at Hume. (ABC Canberra: Penny Travers)

FOY Group has a processing plant that cleans co-mingled fuel at Berkley Vale, north of Sydney.

"It's got neighbours that are less than half the distance away [than those from the Hume site] and it's got industrial neighbours that share a wall," Mr Clark said.

"We've never had a single complaint, or emission from that building that they've complained about."

Mr Clark said FOY Group was committed to communicating with nearby residents and was working with them to address their concerns.

"We want to leave a legacy here, we want to be good neighbours," he said.

"We really want this to be a flagship; we want to build other sites throughout the world and we want to be able to bring people here — from the US, China, Indonesia — and show them a nice, clean working facility."

The ACT Government is reviewing an environmental impact statement for the project which is open for comments until September 23.

If approved, FOY Group plans to have the site up and running next year.

AustraliaPlus


 

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