| 11 New Zealand’s first large-scale food waste to bioenergy and biofertiliser plant at Reporoa includes a world-leading commercial scale food waste pasteuriser that is completely new to the New Zealand market. The innovative pasteuriser – supplied by HRS – is what makes it possible for the plant to safely convert waste food and garden organics into a value-add organic biofertiliser. The fully automated bespoke Digestate Pasteurisation System (DPS), supplied by HRS, has been designed to kill off any pathogens - such as salmonella, staphylococcus or e-coli – that could impact human, animal or plant health. It does this by using ‘waste heat’ from the site-based combined heat and power plants to treat the plant’s organic digestate material, heating it at more than 70degC for an hour before letting it cool for further use. As well as creating a first class biosolid, the whole process is incredibly energy efficient, with HRS DTI heat exchangers used to recover up to 70% of the heat energy required for the process. A dedicated team of project and automation engineers from HRS, which has been supporting New Zealand and Australia’s nascent bioenergy sector since 2015, is commissioning the system at Reporoa this month (October 2022), following installation in February. Once it is up and running, the plant’s operators will be trained on how to run the DPS, which can also be remotely monitored if required for updates and fault finding. As well, HRS has a dedicated local presence in New Zealand to support HRS installations. “It’s great to be installing our Digestate Pasteurisation System for the first time in New Zealand,” says Chris Little, Managing Director, HRS Heat Exchangers Australia. “We firmly believe that if renewable energy such as this is to reach its full potential globally then the whole production process needs to be as efficient as possible, and that includes getting the most benefit from the digestate in terms of using it as renewable organic fertiliser. The DPS ensures that digestate can be used in this way without the risk of spreading plant pathogens or similar.” HRS operates globally at the forefront of thermal technology, offering innovative and effective heat transfer products. As demonstrated by the Reporoa project, HRS provides a full wrap-around service from initial consultation through to manufacturing, installation, commissioning and after sales service. HRS externally mounted heat exchangers – whether as part of a DPS or for heating the digester itself – offer highly efficient process control and other key performance advantages, including: • Enormously increased heat transfer achieved using HRS’ performance-enhancing tube corrugations that require less surface area and pumping power than smooth tube heat exchangers. • Greater homogeneity in the thermal profile across the digester. • Unparalleled ease of access for maintenance and inspection. • Minimisation of cross-contamination risks between digestate and hot water circuits. • In the case of DPS, high rates of energy recovery. HRS has 40 years’ experience in the biogas and environmental sectors and operates a network of offices throughout the world as well as manufacturing plants in the UK, India, Spain and Canada. HRS pasteurisation system for bioenergy plant a first for NZ
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