2015
Aurora Waste to Energy Project
Yarra Valley Water, one of Australia’s largest water authorities, contracted Aquatec Maxcon to investigate and design a waste
to energy solution as to provide a more sustainable sewage treatment plant to the area. Aquatec Maxcon was able to provide
a unique business model to the council, which produces renewable energy from a variety of different waste sources.
The unique design solution is to be used by powering the existing Aurora sewage treatment plant and recycled water facility, with
excess energy exported to the grid. The facility is planned
to provide more sustainable energy from the existing sewage
treatment plants and remove waste that would otherwise end up in landfill.
Aquatec Maxcon plans to fully operate the facility once the plant has finalised the construction and commissioning phases.As the technology provide on the Aurora project, Aquatec Maxcon has planned to construct the waste to energy facility which on average will be processing 100m3 of waste every day, equating to approximately 5-7 truckloads of organic waste daily. The sewage treatment plant will use biomass derived from a number of sources, which may include fats, oil & grease, fruit & vegetable wastes and wastes from animal processing facilities (such as the sludge from waste treatment plants at abattoirs). The biomass is to be stored in separate liquid holding tanks or in a solids receivable building area to allow for a consistent mix to be fed to the digesters.
The plant will feed the biomass mixture into the digesters, where the absence of oxygen causes the waste to break down. As this waste breaks down it generates methane, which is the main component of natural gas. The biogas can be used directly for producing heat or combined power and heat (CHP). The process is incredibly energy efficient, as out of 100 per cent of the energy content put into the plant only 12 per cent is required to run the plant and only 10 per cent is lost from teh CHP process. This leaves an excess of 78 per cent of the energy to be sold in the form of power and heat, or excess electricity to the grid.
Aquatec Maxcon also plans to construct a state of the art odour treatment to ensure that odour is effectively and efficiently managed. The facility is managed through an EPA Works Approval process to ensure that the environment is protected.
