6 | REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT Ecogas NZ T T Richard Loader Waste-to-energy plant making its mark Food waste is transformed into energy and liquid fertilise at the state-of-the-art Reporoa Organics Processing Facility. Transforming food waste into energy and liquid fertiliser at its state-of-the-art Reporoa Organics Processing Facility has earned Ecogas NZ the Low Carbon Future award at this year’s NZ Energy Excellence Awards. Ecogas’ General Manager, Dr Alzbeta Bouskova Houghton says winning the Low Carbon Future Award was clear recognition of the value that both the business and its dedicated team deliver. “Winning the award is a reflection on society’s willingness to embrace waste-to-energy as part of our future. For Ecogas, sustainability is not an add-on to our business, it’s what we live and breathe, and I think that’s what our success at the awards recognise. “We’re actually carbon-positive. If you look at the greater benefit of what we are doing it starts with avoiding land-fill emissions, and that’s our greater contribution.” Reflecting on the very significant contribution the wider Ecogas team has made to the business since it commenced operations last year, Dr Bouskova Houghton says the company tends to attract people who believe in what it does. “It’s almost an inherent buy-in. People don’t just come here to work; they come because they know that what they’re doing is good for the planet. “We have people coming to us offering to help, just because they want to see us succeed. That helps us a lot with engagement with our people. “We’re very fortunate in being surrounded and supported by many talented people who believe in what we do. That trickles down to our stakeholders and our customers. If you know why you’re doing what you’re doing it is much easier to keep doing it. In that respect, I think our job is quite easy because we have such a good story.” Established in 2019, Ecogas is a partnership between Pioneer Energy and EcoStock Supplies, a partnership that Dr Bouskova Houghton refers to as a match made in heaven. “It was not until Pioneer and EcoStock combined their complementary strengths that the perfect baseline and expertise was created. EcoStock knows the food waste business and Pioneer knows all about asset management, and the generation of renewable energy.” While the initial business case allowed for a smaller plant, targeting commercial and industrial food waste from the wider Waikato and Auckland region, during its resource consent application Ecogas successfully tendered to process household food waste from the Auckland City Council. “That effectively tripled the size of the plant, and underwrote the project for the next thirty years. Currently around fifty percent of our feedstock comes from Auckland’s household source segregated food waste and we backfill the capacity with commercial and industrial waste — essentially everything that doesn’t meet the standard to make it onto the shelf for sale or is a by-product of food manufacturing. “We have the capacity to process 75,000 tonnes per annum. Auckland City Council are projected to grow into the full 75,000 tonnes over the next 15 years. We have plans to expand capacity to 100,000 tonnes.” The primary function of food is to provide nutrients and energy, and Ecogas is preserving that function so that the nutrients and energy can be fed back into the food and energy cycle to produce more food. “We call it closing the loop. Effectively, food waste arrives on site, is decontaminated and goes into an anaerobic digestive process where it is broken down into energy, in the form of bio-gas and nutrients. “The nutrients are pasteurised and turned into a liquid fertiliser, which is applied on local farms. “The biogas is used to produce electricity and heat to keep Ecogas’s plant self-sufficient. “It also heats local commercial tomato glass-houses, and next year the bio-gas will be upgraded into bio-methane and bio-C02. “The carbon dioxide will also go into the glass houses and the bio-methane will be injected into the natural gas grid as a renewable gas.” Looking to the future, Dr Bouskova says there are plans to open a plant in Christchurch and Ecogas is also actively pursuing opportunities in the Manawatu to share the value that Ecogas is providing to the community. Warner Construction is proud to be associated with Ecogas NZ General Engineering • Pipeline Construction • Geothermal • Bolt Tensioning • Blast & Paint • Transport Services Waitara (Head Office) 06 754 8602 adam@warnerconstruction.co.nz 36 Norman St, Waitara, New Plymouth 4320 Taupo 07 376 5753 grant@warnerconstruction.co.nz 32 Manuka St, Tauhara, Taupo 3330 Bell Block 06 755 4504 adam@warnerconstruction.co.nz 65 De Havilland Drive, Bell Block, New Plymouth 4312 www.warnerconstruction.co.nz
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