14 | Ecogas NZ T T Virginia Wright A step towards sustainable gas supply The Ecogas facility is located in Reporoa, halfway between Rotorua and Taupo. “Anything that contains meat, mould or mixed organics was still going to landfill, and that’s where anaerobic digestion comes in. It’s the process our core technology uses to convert organic waste of any kind into a renewable energy.” REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT In 2022, the Ecogas Ltd Partnership completed building New Zealand’s first commercial-scale biogas production facility generating renewable energy and ‘drop-in’ fertiliser. Located in Reporoa, halfway between Rotorua and Taupo it is also New Zealand’s first organics processing plant, diverting organic waste from landfill and using an anaerobic digestion (AD) process to convert it into renewable gas, electricity and heat. Ecogas itself was established in 2019 as a limited partnership between Pioneer Energy and EcoStock. Pioneer Energy is owned by an 86-year-old community-owned Central Lakes Trust, with over $400 million worth of renewable-energy projects around the country. Founded by Andrew Fisher in 2007, Ecostock complements this 100% New Zealand partnership with an 18-year, award-winning history of diverting organics from landfill. Since 2007, Ecostock has been collecting organic waste, mostly from food manufacturers, and turning it into stock feed. By 2011, Andrew was investigating ways to deal with animal protein, mouldy and mixed organics, which cannot be fed to animals. “Anything that contains meat, mould or mixed organics was still going to landfill, and that’s where anaerobic digestion comes in. It’s the process our core technology uses to convert organic waste of any kind into a renewable energy,” says Ecogas chief technical officer Alzbeta Bouskova. A process engineer originally from the Czech Republic, who did her PhD in the anaerobic digestion of organic waste in Sweden, Alzbeta met Andrew in 2014 when he was already successfully piloting a small-scale AD plant in Wiri. “Andrew and I probably did the first back-of-the-envelope numbers 10 years ago, but Pioneer Energy were the missing piece in the puzzle. With Ecostock’s knowledge of the organic waste industry it was a match made in heaven, thanks to Pioneer’s track record in operating complex plants in a well-managed way, and their willingness to fund and support sustainable infrastructure, which is crucial in New Zealand,” says Alzbeta. The Ecogas Reporoa plant processes thousands of tons of organic waste, including the household waste collected kerbside by the Auckland City Council, and commercial, factory, and industrial food waste, whether it’s a byproduct, or food that didn’t meet industry standards, for whatever reason, and has to be disposed of. What comes out the other side is biogas, which is currently used in three different ways: to generate the plant’s electricity, making it fully self-sufficient; to produce the heat that is partially used at the plant but also heats T&G Fresh’s tomato glasshouse next door; and, thanks to a recent partnership with First Renewables, a Clarus company, the substantial amount of gas remaining is separated into biomethane and bio carbon dioxide (CO2). The bio CO2 will be used in the T&G glasshouse to substitute CO2 generated from natural gas, and the biomethane is injected into a FirstGas natural gas pipeline, delivering the first renewable gas in the country for homes and businesses to use. While it’s still a drop in the ocean in terms of the country’s gas energy needs, Ecogas has been instrumental in establishing a benchmark that opens the door for future expansion. It’s accepted that our domestic gas reserves are diminishing, and if nothing changes we will have to import fossil gas from elsewhere in the world. Bioenergy offers an alternative, as Alzbeta explains. “The Bioenergy Association have set themselves the target of generating 20 petajoules by 2050, enough to maintain amaintaining sustainable supply into hard to abate industries, which is those that can’t easily switch to electricity or other renewable fuels.” One more product is created from the Reporoa plant’s capturing and retaining the organic waste’s nutrients and trace elements. They are the key ingredients in Fertify, a liquid fertiliser distributed to the farmers around Reporoa as a substitute for urea and other synthetic fertilisers. “We call it closing the loop on nutrients and we see it as just as important as the energy side of what we do,” says Alzbeta. Ecogas is a large and complex undertaking, but still only one of many waste-to-energy projects and ideas that feed into Andrew Fisher’s vision: that the work he does should be used to improve how we live; to ensure that future generations can enjoy the same, if not better, life as the one our generation has enjoyed. Being part of New Zealand’s journey to producing its own renewable energy, while simultaneously removing our dependence on imported fuels and fertilisers seems like a step in the right direction. Proudly supporting Ecogas NZ 07 575 2954 www.portertransport.co.nz
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