• June 13, 2017
• By Jackson
• Uncategorized

Over the past year, some progress has been made to establish advanced energy from waste infrastructure in Australia. To date, a total of three purpose designed plants have received planning approval in Western Australia, and a proposal for a very large plant in Western Sydney is currently in the planning assessment process.

Gaining community support and acceptance of these plants is a vital part of the planning and assessment process. Ensuring that development proposals incorporate world’s best practice to protect human health and the environment is essential.

In March 2017, we organised the first dedicated technical study tour of advanced energy from waste plants in Tokyo, Japan. We also met with senior licensing and regulatory officials in the Tokyo Bureau of Environment and the Japan Ministry of Environment.

It is clear that Japan, similar to parts of Europe, are leading the world in developing and delivery world’s best practice energy from waste facilities that can help recovery energy from wastes that are otherwise thrown away in landfill.

Many plants are in close proximity to industrial and residential areas, though major investment in treatment of exhaust gases and real-time monitoring of plant performance is performed to ensure that plants do not impact on people and the surrounding environment. Recovery and use of heat and production of electricity is also a very common feature of these plants. Reuse of bottom ash in construction applications also occurs.

As a nation, Japan has 1,162 energy from waste plants, including plants with no energy recovery, through to modern gasification plants with advanced pollution control, energy recovery and plasma arc treatment of ash. Tokyo alone has 21 dedicated energy from waste plants that recover energy from residual waste after source separation and recycling. These are publicly owned and operated by the Clean Authority of Tokyo.

There are 764 energy from waste plants across the country that capture heat from the process, and a further 338 include power generation capabilities. The average processing capacity per plant is 158 tonnes per day, or approximately 57,670 tonnes per year.

Tokyo’s 21 energy from waste plants have undergone a major modernisation program to improve their environmental performance, with emissions in line with the European Union’s Waste Incineration Directive (2000/76/EC), a strict environmental standard in place to protect human health and the environment across Europe. This is the same standard that applies to projects in NSW under the NSW EPA’s Energy from Waste Policy Statement.

To help in the transfer of knowledge to support the development of appropriate and international best practice energy from waste facilities in Australia, a second study tour of advanced energy from waste plants in Tokyo will be led by Jackson Environment and Planning Pty Ltd, 13-16^th February 2018.

A tour itinerary has been developed and we will inspect six of the latest plants built in Tokyo.

The study tour has been designed for private sector investors in energy from waste infrastructure, local government representatives, and local and state government officers responsible for procurement, planning assessment and regulation of these facilities.

Places are limited in the tour, so early bookings are recommended. A full overview of the tour and how to register is available in the brochure Study Tokyo 2018 brochure.

All meetings and site tours will be supported by Jackson Environment and Planning’s Business and Trade Advisor in Tokyo, Ms Sachiko Ohba. Ms Ohba is a bilingual business and marketing specialist who is fluent in Japanese and English.

Should you have any queries, please call Dr Mark Jackson, Director, Jackson Environment and Planning Pty Ltd on (02) 8056 1849 or mark@www.jacksonenvironment.com.au.