An innovative biogas and water treatment plant at JBS Australia has resulted in $1 million in annual savings for the company and an award for its designer.
Wiley, a food manufacturing specialist in integrated facility engineering, won the award for Innovation in Environmental Management Construction at the Queensland Master Builders Association (QMBA) Brisbane Regional Awards for the project.
Wiley partnered with JBS Australia, the nation's largest meat processing company, to create a self-sustaining biogas facility at its Dinmore facility, capturing cattle emissions to power an existing natural gas-fired boiler plant.
The project led to an 89 per cent reduction in the facility’s annual greenhouse gas emissions and a saving of more than $1 million a year on natural gas costs.
Accepting the award, Wiley project director, Graham Harvey said: “This is an industry benchmark demonstrating the reality of environmental processing solutions for heavy emission producers. It is a great win for Wiley, JBS Australia and everyone involved.”
The project’s key solutions included:
- Construction of a new 20ML Covered Anaerobic Lagoon (CAL)
- Covering of two existing Anaerobic Lagoons (AL) with high density polyethylene (HDPE) to capture biogas, and then burn the gas through the boiler to provide energy for the plant
- Installation of a biogas train to pipe biogas from the CALs to a central flare and then to the existing 10MW boiler
- Upgrade of Waste Water Treatment Plant (WWTP) with a new Dissolved Air Flotation (DAF) unit.
