Industrial Automation Magazine India

ABB technology to help convert waste into sustainable energy

Published on : Wednesday 28-10-2020

The plant will generate 29 MW of electricity for the local state-owned electricity grid, more than 50 per cent of it deemed to be renewable.

October 2020 – A new waste-to-energy plant near Perth, will rely on ABB's gas analysers to help it safely produce 29 MW of baseload electricity from non-recyclable waste that would otherwise go to landfill. Cleantech company Hitachi Zosen Inova (HZI) Australia, has selected three ABB ACF5000 analysers as part of a complete continuous emission monitoring (CEM) solution to accurately monitor the composition of exhaust gases at its new large-scale East Rockingham Waste-to-Energy facility, located 45 km south of Perth, Western Australia. High-tech facilities like this waste -to-energy plant address two major challenges facing Australia because they deliver sustainable and affordable solutions for both electricity generation and waste management, according to the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) which provided support for the project via grant funding.

The plant will generate 29 MW of electricity for the local state-owned electricity grid, more than 50 per cent of it deemed to be renewable. This is enough capacity to power 40,000 homes from an annual feedstock of up to 330,000 tonnes of municipal, industrial and commercial waste. The by-products from the incineration process will be used to build roads and produce construction materials, ensuring that 70,000 tonnes of bottom ash will not go to landfill.

The success of the A$511 million project is vital to improve waste diversion rates. Perth is built on a sandy coastal plain and heavily reliant on groundwater as its primary source of potable water, so when existing landfill sites reach capacity, new metropolitan area landfill sites are unlikely to be approved.