Turning household garbage into power

Capturing landfill gas and generating renewable energy

WSN Environmental Solutions and joint venture partner LMS Generation have reached a major milestone, generating over 50,000 megawatt hours of renewable energy from waste at the Eastern Creek waste-to-energy complex in its first year of operation.

The plant, which was commissioned in May 2008, comprises six engines that are capable of exporting enough renewable energy to the NSW Energy Grid to power 6000 homes. Two more engines will be added, increasing capacity to the equivalent of 8000 homes.

At full capacity, the project will abate greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to taking 84,000 cars off the road for a whole year.

WSN CEO Ken Kanofski said the project has a two-fold benefit, preventing methane escaping into the atmosphere and generating renewable energy.

“Landfill gas capture is a crucial interim measure as we move towards more sustainable waste processing technology,” Kanofski said.

“Recovering resources from waste also puts us in a position of strength as we prepare for the impending Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS), under which waste is a covered sector.”

Methane from the biogas created during the breakdown of household waste in the Eastern Creek landfill is combusted to create electricity, which is then supplied to the NSW Energy Grid.

Methane is 21 times more potent a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide (CO₂) and landfills continue to emit methane for up to 50 years after the waste is landfilled. Gas capture infrastructure is crucial to managing the long-term environmental impact of the landfill.

Kanofski said WSN sites’ export capacity would increase even further, with the two additional engines to be installed at Eastern Creek over the coming years as more biogas becomes available and as WSN’s Macarthur Resource Recovery Park begins operating at full capacity.

“By 2014, WSN expects its network of sites to be exporting enough green electricity to the grid to supply up to 40,000 homes with year-round green power,” Kanofski said.