Well Done

EFI to help "green" NZ beef & lamb

Energy for Industry (EFI) has started work on a new bio-energy project that will provide heat from renewable fuels to PPCS’ Finegand meat works near Balclutha

28 August, 2007

PPCS is New Zealand’s largest meat processing company and the Finegand works is their largest site.  EFI’s new heat plant will burn dewatered effluent sludge from the Finegand site waste water treatment plant and wood residues sourced locally, typically from sawmills, in an 8.5MW Bubbling Fluidised Bed (BFB) boiler.  The steam generated by EFI from these bio-fuels will displace steam generated from coal in PPCS’ existing boilers, thus achieving very significant improvements in the environmental impact of the Finegand works.

A BFB boiler has been selected for its greater fuel flexibility over more conventional boilers in burning wood wastes and sludges – both of which can have high moisture content and be of relatively low energy value compared to fossil fuels.  A baghouse on the discharge to air from the boiler will achieve best practice emissions of less than 50mg/m³.

The primary purpose of EFI’s heat plant is to incinerate approximately 3,000 tonnes per annum of sludge from the Finegand works’ waste water treatment plant, addressing a waste disposal problem for PPCS and utilising the fuel value in the sludge to displace coal.  The sludge fuel will be supplemented with wood residues available from local sawmills.

PPCS is currently upgrading the Finegand waste water treatment plant to meet new consent requirements for treated effluent discharge into the Clutha River.  This will result in much larger volumes of sludge, which PPCS had planned to dispose of in a new composting operation.  However the heat plant project was preferred over composting because of additional major environmental advantages including:

  • The generation of at least 35,000 tonnes per annum of base load steam from renewable fuels, avoiding at least 5,000 tonnes per year of CO2 emissions;
  • Significantly improving air quality at the site, reducing fine particulate (PM10) emissions by 22 tonnes per year and sulphur dioxide emissions by 110 tonnes per year;
  • Avoiding the need to compost the sludge and the associated potential environmental impacts from odour, visual impact, and anaerobic methane emissions; and
  • Avoiding the need to spend capital on a new composting plant.

The BFB boiler plant will be manufactured and installed by RCR Easteel Energy Systems.  Commissioning is due to start in March 2008 and the heat plant will be in operation by late July 2008, before the end of the next meat processing season.

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