Greenhill Energy pilot brings Tailem Bend gas plant closer
Plans for a $425 million Riverbend Energy Hub are progressing with a pilot project in Adelaide and early engineering works in the Murraylands.
Stories create community – that’s why this recent story is now free to read. You can help Murray Bridge News tell our community’s stories by subscribing today.
Work is beginning at Tailem Bend on a project which could unlock a new era of recycling and energy production for Australia.
Greenhill Energy has started trialling the technology it hopes to use on a grid scale at its planned Riverbend Energy Hub.
The company will soon begin pre-processing household waste at the Adelaide Waste and Recycling Centre at North Plympton, then feed it into a gasifier – a machine which produces synthetic hydrogen gas – at the University of Adelaide’s Thebarton campus.
Waste will be sorted into 100-kilogram blocks, dried and shrunk before being put into the gasifier.
Simultaneously, the company has started early-stage engineering works at the Tailem Bend site where it plans to build its facility.
Ultimately, Greenhill and its partners – which include Peats Soil and Garden Supplies, Solo Resource Recovery, the City of West Torrens and the university – hope to prove that the process for turning waste into gas is commercially viable.
Should the pilot project prove as successful as executive managing director Nicholas Mumford hopes, the company ultimately hopes to:
- divert up to 200,000 tonnes of waste away from landfill each year
- avoid the release of methane, one of the gases which drives climate change
- create hydrogen gas which can be used as a fuel or to generate electricity
- create 50 to 100 ongoing jobs at Tailem Bend
For reference, 200,000t would be almost 60 times as much waste as Murray Bridge produces in a year.
“This process will effectively mature Australia’s circular economy and contribute to considerable emission reductions in Australia’s waste sector,” Mr Mumford said.
“We’re excited to take another leap forward with this demonstration.”
Stories create community. Help Murray Bridge News tell our community’s stories.
West Torrens Mayor Michael Coxon hoped the project would allow waste to be diverted away from landfill at North Plympton and made useful at Tailem Bend.
“We can then potentially use the hydrogen for our own purposes, such as replacing our diesel-powered vehicles with some hydrogen trucks,” he said.
“Ultimately, we want to convert our waste into energy and not continue to put it in the ground.”
The facility would also produce up to 100,000 tonnes of urea fertiliser each year.
That would reduce Australian farmers’ reliance on foreign products, and leave them less susceptible to price spikes.
Waste biomass for the project will be supplied by Peats Soil and Garden Supplies, which has a facility at Langhorne Creek.
Managing director Peter Wadewitz said he looked forward to proving that valuable, hydrogen-derived fertilisers could be produced using local manufacturing processes.
Greenhill Energy is currently seeking $8 million from investors as it prepares to demonstrate the technology that will allow it to scale up in years to come.
The company first revealed its plans at a Regional Development Australia event last November.
