$425 million hydrogen from biomass plant planned for SA

Greenhill Energy has announced a $425 million investment to construct Australia’s first large scale integrated waste-to-hydrogen processing facility on a 20 hectare site at Tailem Bend, on the Murray River in South Australia.

The Riverbend Energy Hub plant will upcycle biomass and landfill waste and methane emissions into low-cost clean hydrogen, producing energy and high-value industrial products, including synthetic fuels and up to 100,000 tonnes a year of urea fertilisers.

Greenhill’s preferred technology is a gasification process that converts these ‘feedstock’ materials into a syngas that can then be separated into high-quality hydrogen (H2) and carbon dioxide (CO2) gas streams.

Greenhill Energy Managing Director Nicholas Mumford said the project had been granted state government crown sponsorship, which would see the construction of a gasifier in 2025 in the first phase of the project development.

A combined cycle gas turbine generator will be capable of using syngas to produce 100MW of electricity in the first stage.

Mumford said: “This will be able to process up to 60,000 tonnes of dry biomass or waste per year, which is about 1,500 fully loaded semi-trailer trucks.

“Riverbend Energy Hub’s stage one will also include an integrated power plant that will be able to provide firm power into the wholesale electricity market, and in turn, support further development of intermittent renewable energy generation types.

“…Once established and operating at full scale it is estimated there will be around 50 to 100 direct jobs.”

Greenhill has spent five years research developing a closed system to turn wastes into clear hydrogen and fertilisers.

“We know the community expects that landfill should be the last resort for household and industry waste, with higher levels of diversion, resource re-use and recycling – and that’s the business we are in.”

Picture: Greenhill Energy