96 | ENERGY Ecogas Plant turning food waste into energy T T Sue Russell Once operational, Ecogas will convert upward of 75,000 tonnes of food waste from kerbside and food scrap collections throughout the North Island, into renewable and sustainable energy. A resource recovery plant, turning food waste into valuable resources is currently being built, and due shortly to be commissioned at Reporoa, in the central North Island. Andrew Fisher, Ecogas Director and Owner of one of the founding Partners of EcoStock Supplies, has dedicated years of hard work to introduce this internationally widespread technology in New Zealand, at a price point competitive with landfill. Once fully operational, Ecogas will convert upward of 75,000 tonnes of food waste from kerbside and food scrap collections throughout the North Island, into clean, renewable and sustainable energy. The facility already has over 30 of New Zealand’s leading food manufacturers and exporters supporting it. Waste is transformed into energy and fertiliser, which are valuable resources, inside anaerobic digesters. Ecogas Reporoa is the first commercial facility of its scale in this country and it is able to utilise existing commercial energy and primary industry distribution infrastructure. Alzbeta Bouskova, who as General Manager has been overseeing the commissioning of the plant and building relationships with the community, council, and suppliers, says Ecogas is ground-breaking. “Not only are we creating really valuable resources to supply energy and a nutrient rich fertiliser for agriculture, but we are saving thousands of tonnes of this valuable waste going into landfills,” says Alzbeta. A 20-year contract with Auckland Council, has secured supply to the plant and substantially reduced the amount of the city’s food going to landfills. The project, funded by Ecogas, a partnership between Ecostock Supplies and Pioneer Energy (owned by the Central Lakes Trust), along with a $7 million loan from the Provincial Growth Fund will begin producing the gas output and fertiliser by-product in mid 2022. And as much as the success of the project can be put down to the leadership of the Ecogas founding partners, Alzbeta says without the support of Auckland Council, the globally recognised technology here would have taken a great deal longer to bring to New Zealand. Similar facilities have been operating in UK and Europe as early as 1938, and at scale more recently since 2004. When food-waste arrives at the plant it goes through a decontamination process, an internationally recognised and monitored standard PAS110, as Alzbeta explains. “We chop it up it into smaller sizes and remove plastics, metal and wood, and then it gets blended into a waste smoothie.” Once in smoothie form, the material is very accessible to bacteria which converts it into gas energy, leaving the valuable nutrients in the liquid fertiliser. “We will have a small portion of waste from the reject materials, but we are working with all our suppliers to try to minimise this through education, early-stage detection and additional markets.” The task ahead, Alzbeta says, will be for Auckland Council to educate residences to embrace this positive change, put only food scraps into the bins, use this weekly service and acknowledge that this resource is going into a circular solution, where within 70 days it will be converted into energy and fertiliser. “The Auckland Council has recognised that New Zealand needs to step away from its dependency on over 134 Class 1 and 2 landfills, and providing waste solutions for future generations, calls for action now. Ecogas Reporoa is grateful for the Councils support, as by being centrally located in the North Island, the Reporoa facility is able to support other Councils and commercial enterprises. This allows immediate diversity, and a business case to build additional Ecogas facilities closer to regions prepared to step away from landfill dependency.” While the design capacity is 75,000 tonne per year, there is space set aside to increase this in time to 100,000 tonne, with further scaling possible. It’s incredibly exciting, Alzbeta says, to be pioneering such a meaningful project in this country. Leaving no stone unturned, experts from Europe, Australia and New Zealand have been engaged throughout the design and development stages to ensure the state-ofthe-art facility will deliver the desired outcome with resilience and consistency. “The early days will be a bit like feeding a baby. We will start with a small amount of waste input and ramp it up over three or four months to full operation.” Ecogas has the potential to generate enough energy annually to supply the equivalent of 9,000 homes and business with biomethane, produce bio-fertiliser to nurture about 2000 hectares of local farmland and provide CO2 and heat to help grow crops in T&G Fresh’s local glasshouse. “I think this is a wonderful gift to current and future generations. Waste, is a resource that can be transformed into incredibly important, clean, useful and cost-effective products, servicing a number of valuable sectors. It is through partnerships with Councils, utilities, agriculture and industrial entities and our local communities that we can truly assist a sustainable transition to a low-carbon and circular economy in New Zealand”. 65 Matai St P 07 378 6067 W eandj.nz SPECIALISING IN • House Drainage • Civil & Commercial • Sewer • Stormwater • Soakholes E & J Contractors are proud to be associated with Ecogas • Water Reticulation • Butt & Fusion Welding • Wastewater Treatment Systems • Fibreglass Jointing & Fabrication • Pump Stations
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