Eliminating Greenhouse Gasses and Reducing Landfill
How often we assume that because something has always been done in a certain way it must be ok. Did you know that burying organic waste creates greenhouse gasses as it breaks down? Yet this is where a high percentage of our garbage ends up.
Whether you are a small restaurant or a large industrial food industry supplier, you can save money on your recycling while at the same time assist Earthpower in achieving incredible environmental outcomes.
MAR was thrilled to work with Earthpower, who is committed to environmental best practice in the processing of organic food wastes in a sustainable and commercially viable manner to produce green energy and nutrient rich fertilisers.
Food waste including plastics or packaging is removed during the pulping process – which results in 2% - 3% of the original volume being disposed as landfill. A very significant reduction!
After the organic matter is pulped and the non organic product is removed, it is then passed onto the ‘digesters’ where Biogas, made up of Carbon Dioxide and Methane , is produced which is fed through to the internal combustion engines that produce the electricity. The remaining product is dried and pelletised. This alone produces up to 15,000 tonnes annually. The final product is 60,000 tonnes of clean recyclable stream water.
The networking challenge was to integrate field devices into a dynamic control system utilizing Siemens S7 PLCs, Win CC SCADA and Profibus Networking enabling a far more efficient overall running of the plant, while making it simpler to maintain the total system as well as facilitating easier updates.
In addition it was essential to fine tune the system by calibration of all field sensing equipment to optimise the plant’s performance.
Earthpower is currently increasing the food waste stream to the biological plant process with full capacity forecast at more than 200 tonnes of solid and liquid food waste per day. This equates to almost 80,000 tonnes of food waste per year generating enough electricity for a suburb of domestic houses.
Weigh this off against one million tonnes of waste being trucked around the country to landfills in Sydney alone, and then emitting more greenhouse gasses as it breaks down. Of this one million tonnes, almost 50%, is putrescible and able to be converted to energy and organic fertiliser.
Being centrally located, transportation costs and emissions are minimised including petrol costs and travel time. The plant is open 24 hours a day 365 days per year, also enabling trucks to avoid daytime traffic congestion delays as well.
A small restaurant can tap into a waste transport company that uses the facilities while large industrial companies can deal direct with Earthpower. Disposal costs through Earthpower present significant savings when compared to landfill options.
For more information you can follow this link to the Earthpower website www.earthpower.com.au . Alternatively you can ring or email Anthony Gollan, Operations Manager on 96845832 / agollan@earthpower.com.au
Machinery Automation & Robotics
1/101 Derby Street
Silverwater NSW 2128
Phone: (61) 2 9748 7001
http://www.machineryautomation.com.au